Gentleman Johnny Plays War: John Burgoyne and The Blockade of Boston

John Burgoyne, a British general during the American Revolution, is best known for his defeat by the Continental Army at Saratoga. In addition to serving as a general,Burgoyne was a playwright. While in Boston during the blockade following the Battle ofBunker Hill Burgoyne combined his interests, writing a satire of the war. The Blockade of Boston, Burgoyne's play, was first presented as an afterpiece to a production of The Busybody on January 8, 1776 (Silverman 292).Accounts of the performance differ in detail, but the central event is consistent: during the performance a soldier walked out on stage and announced that the rebels were attacking a British position. The audience of British military personnel, believing the statement to be a part of the performance, stayed in their seats to enjoy the show, only to then realize their mistake a moment later and rush off in great confusion. Most of the surviving records of this event are from the view of the delighted revolutionaries, who published accounts of it in their newspapers and pamphlets, to the lasting humiliation of the men involved with the production.I first encountered the story of Burgoyne's Blockade of Boston while working as a teaching assistant in an undergraduate theatre history class. The professor, Noreen Barnes, was lecturing on American theatre in the eighteenth century when she told the story of the interrupted first performance. I was intrigued by the story, and so when I wrote a paper on a disrupted performance for a historiography class, I chose to research the topic. I discovered that The Blockade of Boston, in addition to being a great story in its own right, could serve as a lens to examine the history of the period, opening questions of race, gender, and just what it means to be an American.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Theatre

Year dc:date.available

2007

Author dc:creator

• Vrtis, Catherine Ann Peckinpaugh

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Noreen Barnes

• theater
• lost play
• John Burgoyne
• Revolutionary War
• satire
• performance
• Arts and Humanities
• Theatre and Performance Studies

Statement dc:rights

• © The Author

Identifier

https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1151

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-2150