The Drama of History in Francophone New Orleans

Abstract

On January 1, 1824, English-speaking population of New Orleans celebrated grand opening of Theatre, lauding advent of Bards own and rise of our Drama in Crescent City (qtd. in Smither 41). For city's francophone residents, this event marked a new stage in ongoing battle for survival. Until opening of Theatre, French drama and opera had dominated city. Beginning in 1792, when Louisiana was still under Spanish rule, French theatricals were regularly performed at Theatre de la Rue St. Pierre, Theatre St. Philippe, and Theatre d'Orleans. After Louisiana Purchase, more and more Anglo-Americans settled permanently in New Orleans and began to compete with city's established French-speaking population for political, economic, and sway. The growing influence of anglophone newcomers alarmed francophone residents, who feared for continued existence of their community. Over time, tensions between two populations turned open hostility and came, according to historian Joseph Tregle, perilously close to armed violence (153). In 1836, city of New Orleans was formally divided along ethnic lines to prevent such an escalation. This article examines how anglophone and francophone struggles for political influence and sovereignty in New Orleans were transported local playhouses. Following Elizabeth Maddock Dillon's conceptualization of early playhouse as a cultural site at which dynamics of political belonging, modern sovereignty, and aesthetics [were] coarticulated (21), I consider how drama native to Crescent City and performed at local theaters at once reflected and helped negotiate continuing tensions between city's multiple linguistic communities. I focus in particular on how Louisiana's French-speaking community used theater as a powerful weapon in battle for survival. On stage and in auditorium, Louisiana's francophone population defined, defended, and disseminated its French while simultaneously negotiating its place in city of New Orleans and broader nation. Conceiving of French-language theater as a site of affirmation, this article explores relationship between institution of theater, written drama, and ethnic in antebellum Louisiana. The correlation between theater and formation has been studied extensively in recent scholarship on early theater. Jeffrey H. Richards, for example, has described theater as [o]ne of registers and molders of identity (17). Heather S. Nathans, Jason Shaffer, and S. E. Wilmer, among others, have specifically linked emergence of theater as an institution to formation of a national American (1,13,1). In her most recent study, Dillon has pointed to limitations of using the familiar narrative of nationalism to examine early theater. Instead, she proposes the study of theatre in Atlantic rather than national terms as a way to throw into relief vitality of theatre as a form in colonial Americas and early national United States (20). While fully agreeing with necessity to expand any investigation of early theater beyond national boundaries of United States, I turn to a multilingual rather than an Atlantic paradigm in order to tease out complexities and multifaceted relations of early stage. (1) Taking as an example theatrical scene of antebellum New Orleans, this article focuses on ways in which drama native to Louisiana and its production in local theater expressed and shaped local concerns of Crescent City's transnational, polyglot communities. In doing so, I build on work of scholars such as Werner Sollors, who has highlighted importance of multilingual sources to creation of literature and culture. …