The Creole Circus and the Making of a Theatergoing Public in Uruguay and Argentina, 1860-1910

FAIN: FA-57305-13

William Garrett Acree, Jr
Washington University (St. Louis, MO 63130-4862)

Theater in Uruguay and Argentina has been one of the most popular forms of entertainment since the nineteenth century. Ironically, the success of theater and the making of a theater-going public in the region have their roots in shows put on by circus troupes in the countryside that only later filled urban theaters. From 1860 to 1910 these troupes performed dramas dealing with rural traditions and exploring issues of migration, social stratification, and tensions of economic modernization. Circus dramas became wildly successful, attracting spectators in the countryside and city alike, in venues ranging from makeshift tents to opera houses. By studying circus plays and their reception, Staging Frontiers argues that popular theater in the region was both a catalyst in the formation of lasting social identities and a bridge between popular and elite forms of cultural production. Moreover, the project models ways to approach similar phenomena in other areas of the Americas and beyond.

Associated Products

Hemispheric Travelers on the Rioplatense Stage (Article)
Title: Hemispheric Travelers on the Rioplatense Stage
Author: William Acree
Abstract: In mid-July 1886 Sarah Bernhardt arrived to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro, where spectators eagerly awaited her presence at a limited number of functions. Bernhardt had just missed the debut of the Creole drama Juan Moreira, previously presented as a pantomime and now enhanced with talking characters. For the next month and a half, news of both Bernhardt and Moreira appeared together in the Buenos Aires press. And it would be easy to imagine the prima donna attending any number of forms of popular entertainment during her stay, for her arrival coincided with the new spectacles of the Carlo Brothers (a U.S. circus family) and Frank Brown (an English clown), while the Italian showman Pablo Raffetto put on “unauthorized” version of Moreira every night. At the end of July Bernhardt left the capital and traveled north to Rosario, then down to La Plata before completing her Rioplatense tour in Montevideo in September. Bernhardt’s South American jaunt obviously tells us something about her fearlessness to brave Transatlantic travel. Beyond this quality of her character, her time in the Río de la Plata reveals a rich entertainment market that emerged thanks to hemispheric migrations, with performers following a circuit that included Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and, above all, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and smaller towns along the tributary rivers leading to the Río de la Plata. The decade of 1880 was a moment of social and growing economic crisis, where tensions increased between rural inhabitants and waves of immigrants. It also saw significant growth in the number of participants in this entertainment market, but by this time it already had a history half a century deep. This article explores how hemispheric travelers contributed to the consolidation of this entertainment market beginning in the late 1820s, and the new forms of sociability that these cultural and material mediators helped to cultivate and frontiers clashed and expanded.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/latr/
Primary URL Description: Latin American Theatre Review web site
Access Model: Subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Latin American Theatre Review
Publisher: Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Kansas

Hemispheric Travelers on the Rioplatense Stage, 1820-1886 (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Hemispheric Travelers on the Rioplatense Stage, 1820-1886
Author: William Acree
Abstract: In mid-July 1886 Sarah Bernhardt finally arrived to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro, where spectators eagerly awaited her presence at a limited number of functions. Bernhardt had just missed the debut of the Creole drama Juan Moreira, previously presented as a pantomime and now enhanced with talking characters. For the next month and a half, news of both Bernhardt and Moreira appeared together in the Buenos Aires press. And it would be easy to imagine the prima donna attending any number of forms of popular entertainment during her stay, for her arrival coincided with the new spectacles of the Carlos Brothers (a U.S. circus family) and Frank Brown (an English clown), while the Italian showman Pablo Raffetto put on “unauthorized” version of Moreira. At the end of July Bernhardt left the capital and traveled north to Rosario, and then in August she acted in La Plata and completed her Rioplatense tour in Montevideo. Bernhardt’s South American tour obviously tells us something about her fearlessness to brave Transatlantic travel. But beyond this quality of her character, her time in the Plata river region reveals a rich entertainment market whose performers followed a circuit including Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and, above all, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and smaller towns along the tributary rivers leading to the Río de la Plata. The decade of 1880 was a moment of significant growth in the number of participants in this entertainment market, but by this time it already had a history half a century deep. This paper explores how hemispheric travelers contributed to the consolidation of this entertainment market beginning in the late 1820s, and the new forms of sociability that emerged in the process.
Date: 01/03/2014
Conference Name: American Historical Association Annual Meeting

The Gaucho Juan Moreira: True Crime in Nineteenth-Century Argentina (Book)
Title: The Gaucho Juan Moreira: True Crime in Nineteenth-Century Argentina
Author: Eduardo Gutierrez
Editor: William Acree
Abstract: Argentinian writer Eduardo Gutiérrez (1851-1889) fashioned his seminal gauchesque novel from the prison records of the real Juan Moreira, a noble outlaw whose life and name became legendary in the Río de la Plata during the late 19th century.
Year: 2014
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 162466136X
Translator: John Charles Chasteen
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

---