[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet” admin_label=”Intro” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#EDEBD1″ use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_direction=”111deg” background_color_gradient_stops=”rgba(43,135,218,0) 0%|rgba(186,162,111,0.52) 62%” background_color_gradient_overlays_image=”on” background_image=”http:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/boucicault\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2022\/12\/slide1-1.jpg” parallax=”on” custom_padding=”23vh||23vh||true|false” custom_padding_tablet=”3vh||3vh||true|false” custom_padding_phone=”3vh||3vh||true|false” background_last_edited=”on|tablet” parallax_tablet=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_2,1_2″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/lib.usf.edu\/boucicault\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2022\/12\/MgxejYK.png” title_text=”MgxejYK” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” animation_style=”fade” animation_duration=”1200ms” animation_delay=”350ms” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″ alt=”The Dion Boucicault Collection logo”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#26261F” text_font_size=”20px” custom_padding=”|2rem||2rem|false|true” custom_padding_tablet=”|2rem||2rem|false|true” custom_padding_phone=”|0rem||0rem|false|true” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet” animation_style=”fade” animation_delay=”750ms” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
The USF Libraries Special Collections is home to the Dion Boucicault Theatre Collection, one of the largest publicly accessible collections of Boucicault materials in the world.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”About” module_id=”about” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_5,3_5,1_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width_tablet=”90%” width_phone=”90%” width_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Born in Dublin, Boucicault was the most prominent playwright on the world stage during the years 1840-1880 and was also an accomplished director, actor, and theatrical manager. He is best known for his three ‘major’ Irish plays\u2014The Colleen Bawn (1860), Arrah-na-Pogue (1864), and The Shaughraun (1874). Boucicault was a socio-cultural phenomenon in his day, beloved by Queen Victoria, and was responsible for many innovations in stagecraft still common today. Not all of his plays were published, however: Like many dramatists whose work predated copyright protection, Boucicault believed that publication would lead to literary piracy. Thus, despite writing and producing more than 200 plays in his lifetime, only a handful of his play scripts exist in print or online for researchers, scholars, and the general public.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, many of Boucicault’s plays discussed in depth in modern scholarship are not readily available to the average reader. The last published collection of Dion Boucicault’s Irish drama was The Dolmen Boucicault, appearing in 1964, and it included only three plays. Since that time, Plays by Dion Boucicault was released in 1984, featuring five plays, and the Selected Plays of Dion Boucicault, containing six plays\u2014two of them also in the aforementioned volume\u2014was released in 1987. In short, scholars who have examined Boucicault’s plays in depth have only had The Dolmen Boucicault and slim anthologized versions to consult without having to rely on archival copies or microform editions of play scripts. USF’s substantial Boucicault collection is therefore invaluable, not only for filling gaps in the canon, but also for understanding 19th-century English-language theatre; contemporaneous social issues facing Britain, Ireland and the United States; and Victorian popular culture.<\/p>\n
With the generous support of\u00a0The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation<\/strong>\u00a0USF has begun to digitize, transcribe, and exhibit the prompt books, notebooks, and unpublished play scripts in the Dion Boucicault Theatre Collection in order to present them in a complete online collection–along with critical analysis of each play in its updated and, in many cases, improved form. Researchers will be able to see Boucicault’s handwritten stage directions, corrections, annotations, and set designs while reading transcribed play scripts as they were actually performed. Since the published scripts of Boucicault’s plays are often drastically different from those that were actually staged, researchers will at last be able to study these materials as they were presented to an audience. This project will ensure that Dion Boucicault’s plays are finally made available to scholars, students and the public\u2014complete, easily accessible, and in their appropriate form.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Plays” module_id=”plays” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#26261F” background_enable_pattern_style=”on” background_pattern_style=”diagonal-stripes-2″ background_pattern_color=”rgba(202,210,216,0.08)” custom_padding=”83px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_5,3_5,1_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#EDEBD1″ header_2_font_size=”42px” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” width_tablet=”90%” width_phone=”90%” width_last_edited=”on|phone” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_accordion open_toggle_background_color=”#EDE8C9″ icon_color=”#9CCB3B” use_icon_font_size=”on” icon_font_size=”20px” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” toggle_text_align=”center” toggle_font_size=”34px” closed_toggle_font_size=”24px” closed_toggle_line_height=”1.9em” body_link_font=”||||on|||#005432|” body_link_text_color=”#005432″ custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”|1rem||1rem|false|true” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ box_shadow_color=”rgba(42,61,68,0.72)” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_accordion_item title=”Pauline (1851)” open=”on” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” body_text_color=”#26261F” body_link_font=”||||on|||#005432|” global_colors_info=”{}” toggle_level=”h3″]<\/p>\n \u201cPauline\u201d was first staged at the Princess\u2019s Theatre in London on 17 March 1851. Acclaimed stage manager Charles Kean had tasked Boucicault, his new \u2018house dramatist,\u2019 with writing a play that would feature Kean and his wife in the lead roles. As he often did at the time, Boucicault looked to the French for source material, and adapted Alexandre Dumas p\u00e8re\u2019s Pauline <\/em>for the stage. The play initially followed Boucicault\u2019s original comedy \u2018Love in a Maze\u2019 and was well received by the public. Queen Victoria went to see the play twice and noted in her journal: \u201cThe Keans acted beautifully\u2026literally keeping one in a state of terror and suspense, so that one quite held one\u2019s breath, and was quite trembling when the play came to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n Boucicault later revived the play in New Orleans as a vehicle with his wife Agnes Robertson and himself in the starring roles. The Times Picayune <\/em>of 23 January 1857 remarked that it was \u201ca play of peculiar construction, and its incidents, situations, and especially its denouement, are all dramatic and striking.\u201d \u201cPauline\u201d was later staged at the Boston theatre in March 1857 and then at the Washington Theater in Washington, DC, in February 1858, again with Boucicault and Agnes in the leads.<\/p>\n But Boucicault could not let \u201cPauline\u201d rest. In 1879, after a string of failures at Wallack\u2019s Theatre in New York City, Boucicault reworked the play into a \u2018new\u2019 drama entitled \u201cSpell-bound.\u201d The play was panned, however, with the New York Times <\/em>calling it a product of a \u201cby-gone age,\u201d in which all that \u201cis not absurd is abominable, and all that is not abominable is absurd.\u201d Boucicault admitted that \u201cSpell-bound\u201d was word-for-word \u201cPauline,\u201d but acknowledged the change in public taste: \u201cI dare say it don\u2019t do now,\u201d he noted to the Spirit of the Times, <\/em>\u201cbut no more would The Miller and his men or Titus Andronicus\u2014both successes in their time.\u201d After the great success of \u201cThe Shaughraun\u201d in 1874, Boucicault was realizing that he was hopelessly out of fashion as a dramatist. Ironically, he continued to live in luxury off the royalties from \u201cThe Shaughraun,\u201d until both those profits and his relevance as a dramatist dried up.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”The Vampire (1852)” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” body_text_color=”#26261F” body_link_font=”||||on|||#005432|” global_colors_info=”{}” toggle_level=”h3″ open=”off”]<\/p>\n As was his practice, Boucicault relied heavily upon other sources for his new vampire play, particularly Le Vampire <\/em>by Alexandre Dumas p\u00e8re, which had recently premiered in Paris in December 1851. Boucicault also drew upon John Polidori\u2019s 1819 short story The Vampyre <\/em>(moonlight\u2019s rejuvenating power on a mortally wounded vampire, the blood oath); Charles Robert Maturin\u2019s 1820 novel Melmoth the Wanderer <\/em>and James Malcolm Rymer\u2019s 1845-47 penny dreadful Varney the Vampyre <\/em>(the vampire\u2019s garb, evocative portraits, a focus on Oliver Cromwell); and James Robinson Planch\u00e9\u2019s 1820 play The Vampire: or the Bride of the Isles <\/em>(the vampire\u2019s psychic power over his victims).<\/p>\n That said, Boucicault importantly added his own stylistic touches and innovations, notably adapting Dumas p\u00e8re\u2019s tapestry sequence by replacing fairies and ghouls with portraits who come to life and emerge from their frames to warn of impending danger. Boucicault also became the first to write, direct, and perform the role of a vampire on stage. On 14 June 1852, Boucicault\u2019s The Vampire, a Phantasm, related in Three Dramas<\/em>, premiered at the Royal Princess\u2019s Theatre. Despite the innovations of stagecraft and composition, as well as Boucicault\u2019s mesmerizing performance as Alan Raby, the British public seemed reluctant to fully embrace the play.<\/p>\n The Times<\/em> of London was unimpressed by the drama, but nevertheless spoke highly of Boucicault\u2019s acting: \u201cThe success of Mr. Boucicault as an actor \u2013 for he made his debut as the Vampire \u2013 was far more unequivocal than that of the piece. The attitudes were well studied, the chilly aspect was carefully made up, and the few words of dialogue were judiciously spoken.\u201d Lloyd\u2019s Weekly Newspaper<\/em> was harsher, telling readers \u201c[W]e have seldom met anything on the stage more abounding in pure unalloyed, undefecated absurdity than The Vampire<\/em>,\u201d adding, however, that Boucicault\u2019s acting was \u201cnot above mediocrity.\u201d<\/p>\n Queen Victoria became the play\u2019s most notable admirer, seeing it on opening night with Prince Albert and thereafter claiming, \u201cMr. Boucicault, who is very handsome and has a fine voice, acted very impressively. I can never forget his livid face and fixed look, in the first two Dramas. It quite haunts me.\u201d She even commissioned a portrait of him in the vampire role. However, she was less thrilled after watching the play again. \u201cIt does not bear seeing a second time, and is, in fact, very trashy.\u201d Due in no small part to the poor reviews, The Vampire<\/em> ended its one-month run at the Princess\u2019s on 14 July 1852. Given the lackluster response to the play,<\/em> Boucicault felt the need to streamline the plot to two acts, enhance the dialogue, and eliminate some of the more elaborate stagecraft. The result was not merely an abbreviated version of The Vampire<\/em>; it was instead a very different drama, The Phantom.<\/em><\/p>\n The text of The Vampire <\/em>included here is entirely in Boucicault\u2019s hand and was purportedly written in six days during April 1852. The structure of the play is ingenious: beginning in the year 1660, each act takes place exactly one century after the other, and the characters in Acts II and III are direct descendants of those in the first act. This framing places the final act in 1860, eight years in the future for those attending at Princess\u2019s theatre in 1852. Every 100 years, the titular vampire must take the life of a young woman and be rejuvenated by the rays of the moon atop Mt. Snowdon. This pattern is repeated in all three acts. Finally, at the end of Act III, the vampire is defeated and pulled down into the earth by his previous female victims. This manuscript copy at USF Special Collections is the only existing version of The Vampire <\/em>in Boucicault\u2019s hand. For a scholarly edition of the play, see here.<\/a><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”The Phantom (1856)” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” body_text_color=”#26261F” body_link_font=”||||on|||#005432|” global_colors_info=”{}” toggle_level=”h3″ open=”off”]<\/p>\n After moving to America in 1853, Boucicault had in his hand a rewrite of his play <\/span>The Vampire<\/span><\/i>. Boucicault felt the need to streamline the plot to two acts, enhance the dialogue, and eliminate some of the more elaborate stagecraft. The result was not merely an abbreviated version of <\/span>The Vampire<\/span><\/i>; it was instead a very different drama he named <\/span>The Phantom. <\/span><\/i>While the Puritan Alan Raby returns as the fiend needing to feast upon the blood of a maiden before being revived by the healing powers of moonlight, much of the stagecraft wizardry has been removed. Gone are the living portraits in the second drama of <\/span>The Vampire, <\/span><\/i>and Alan Raby is no longer vanquished by being pulled down to hell by one of his earlier victims, but rather hurled into a chasm where moonlight cannot reach. The plot and dialogue are also changed to provide more comic relief.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With Boucicault and Agnes Robertson playing the lead roles, <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i> opened at the National Theatre in Philadelphia on 12 May 1856 and later opened at Wallack\u2019s Theatre in New York on 1 July 1856. Reviews were generally positive, with <\/span>Putnam\u2019s Monthly Magazine<\/span><\/i> telling readers that the play \u201cpossesses a most ghastly fascination.\u201d <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i> played Wallack\u2019s into the autumn of 1856, the run becoming its most successful in America. Samuel French published the play that same year.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1857, <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i> appeared in Boston and Louisville, and in 1859, Boucicault staged it in Washington, D.C. An audience member later recalled that, \u201cBoucicault presented the character of the phantom in a manner that horrified while it electrified the audience. \u2026 He appeared on the stage as a sort of living corpse, bloodless and exanimate.\u201d So great was the strain of this extraordinary part upon the actor that Boucicault reportedly said, \u201cWe must take this play off the bills; it is too much for my nerves.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Boucicault later staged <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i> in London in 1862, but it was not a success, and was even hissed at times. A critic for the <\/span>Wells Journal<\/span><\/i> wrote, \u201cif any of my readers, on coming up to London, feel inclined to go and see <\/span>The Phantom<\/span><\/i>, I can only say \u2013 don\u2019t.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The text of <\/span>The Phantom <\/span><\/i>included here alternates between Boucicault\u2019s hand and an unknown copyist. This manuscript bears a watermark of 1852. It is heavily annotated with corrections and stage directions by Boucicault, and the first act is nearly identical to the version published by Samuel French in 1856. Boucicault made significant changes to Act II, however, which will be of interest to researchers with only the published copy to hand.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_accordion_item][et_pb_accordion_item title=”The Colleen Bawn (1860)” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” body_text_color=”#26261F” body_link_font=”||||on|||#005432|” global_colors_info=”{}” toggle_level=”h3″ open=”off”]<\/p>\n \u201cThe Colleen Bawn,\u201d (from the Irish cail\u00edn b\u00e1n \u2018Fair-haired girl\u2019) premiered at Laura Keene\u2019s Theatre in New York City on 29 March 1860. This three-act play was adapted from Gerald Griffin\u2019s The Collegians, and, according to Boucicault, was composed in five days. (Irish-American actor Barney Williams disputed this claim, however, declaring Boucicault was contracted to write the play for him, but ended up stealing it back for himself!) For the first time, Boucicault used his native Ireland as a backdrop and he claimed, \u201c\u2019Twill be found to be I think the best constructed of any of my works.\u201d He was right. The play proved an immediate success, and ran until the end of the theatre season in May 1860. Boucicault\u2019s wife, Agnes Robertson, was praised for her role as Eily, the titular Colleen Bawn, but it was Boucicault\u2019s portrayal of Myles-na-Coppaleen, the dashing scamp with the charming brogue, who stole the show. His spectacular dive into an onstage \u2018lake\u2019 to save the drowning Eily delighted capacity audiences for decades, and this type of \u2018sensation scene,\u2019 coupled with just the right amount of Hibernian flavor and character, became the template for Boucicault\u2019s success for years to come.<\/p>\n After the success of \u201cThe Colleen Bawn\u201d in New York, Boucicault took the play to London, where it was an overwhelming triumph. It premiered at the Adelphi on 10 September 1860, and ran every available night for an unprecedented 230 performances, making it the first long run in British theatre history. Soon, operettas and burlesques were imitating \u201cThe Colleen Bawn,\u201d and Boucicault himself helped turn it into a successful opera, The Lily of Killarney. Even Queen Victoria went to see \u201cThe Colleen Bawn\u201d on numerous occasions, and was just as thrilled as her subjects with the sensational action scenes, picturesque scenery, and sentimental Irish music. Boucicault was rich, and he knew he had hit upon a successful formula\u2014although even he might have been surprised to learn he\u2019d play Myles-na-Coppaleen on stage well into his sixties.<\/p>\n USF Libraries houses several play scripts for \u201cThe Colleen Bawn,\u201d and they are fascinating in their own right: one, dating from 1861, was intended as a gift for the Queen\u2019s daughter Princess Alice, and another appears to be a slightly reworked version that was staged in Melbourne, Australia on Boucicault\u2019s trip there in 1885.<\/p>\nThe Plays<\/h2>\n
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