Shakespeare Riots

[marianas_gamer]

OK you Culture Vultures here is an idea for a scenario in 1840s New York. I was just listening to a story on NPR radio about the Shakespeare Riot in New York City that pitted the gangs of New York against the state militia over, get this, who was the better actor to play Hamlet. Yup, they took this stuff seriously in NY even then. Apparently, the gangs were pretty much whipped and this queered Shakespeare as a working mans playwright in the US for the rest of the century. So can't you see this as a great .45 Adventure or Glorie scenario? Plenty of poorly trained low morale but heavily armed militia against motivated gangers with broken bottles and knives    Can you save the Bard for the masses or will he become a tool of the elite?!?!  Will the groundlings take control of some of the worlds greatest literature and transform it into barnyard entertainment ?!?!lol

[Heldrak]

Better known in Theatre History circles as "The Astor Place Riots" (and IIRC it was "Macbeth", not "Hamlet":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot



-Heldrak (Who is thrilled that his degree in Theatre is finally useful for something other than picking up girls... ).