Re-Entry.mp3
The Astor place Riot
The Astor Place Riot happened May 10, 1849. The reason it was called the Astor place riot was because it happen at the Astor Opera House in New York City. 25 dead and over 120 people got injured. The riot was the first time a state militia had been called out and had shot into a crowd of citizens. The cause of the riot was because of a dispute between Edwin Forrest, one of the best-known American actors of that time, and William Charles Macready, a similarly notable English actor, which largely revolved around which of them was better than the other at acting the major roles of Shakespeare.
Who was involved?
Edwin Forrest was born in Philadelphia; he was first on stage November 27th, 1820. He was famous for portraying blackface caricatures of African Americans. In 1826 he had great success playing Othello. He traveled to Europe to study theatre and received courtesy by actors and scholars. During this time he attempted to personate Macbeth. He got a very poor reaction from the audience who hissed at him during the performance. After this performance he felt that William Macready was plotting agents him and took it upon himself to hiss and heckle Macready’s performances. This evoked the British press and destroyed Forests career in Britain.
William Macready was born in London; he made his first successful appearance in 1810 as Romeo. He quickly became famous for portraying Shakespearian parts. In 1826 he made his first successful tour in the United States. He toured again in 1843 and in 1849. Because of the Riot in 1849 he never returned to the United States.
What happened?
William Macready and Edwin Forrest were playing Macbeth in New York at the same time in theatres only a few blocks from each other. Each Actor had a very strong following, Edwin Forrest appealed to the more common man while William Macready was more popular with the higher class. During one of Macready’s shows a bunch of Forrest fans attended the show. They started to hiss and yell during the show. Forrest fans started to throw anything they could at the stage start to destroy the theater itself. Several attempts to burn down the theatre happed as well. A Mass riot quickly spread around the theatre both inside and outside. State militia was forces to act and shot into the crowd. William Macready was able to slip out of the riot in disguise without getting hurt. After the riot the William returned to London and Forrest, with now a poor reputation because of the riot, took up politics for about ten years.
