Table Reading, "The Whiskey Rebellion"
Department: New Swan Shakespeare Center
Date and Time: January 18, 2017 | 5:00 PM-7:00 PMEvent Location: HG1002
Event Details
Robin Stewart (UCI PhD in English) has written a history play. Table reading will feature UCI faculty, students, and friends. Please join us for drama, commentary, and fun.
The Whiskey Rebellion; or, The Hills Give Light to the Vale
Summary:
In 1794, hundreds of western Pennsylvania militia men, long opposed to Alexander Hamilton’s tax on domestically distilled spirits and increasingly convinced that the newly adopted US Constitution was nothing more than a corrupt scheme to advance eastern elites at the expense of frontier laborers, gathered at the home of General John Neville, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, friend of George Washington, and the region’s federally appointed excise inspector. When Neville refused to renounce his commission or hand over his legal records, a shoot-out ensued that ended in the burning of his home and would eventually prompt Washington to lead a military campaign against his fellow citizens for the first time. Though often overlooked as a minor footnote in American history (even the Broadway hit Hamilton mentions it only in passing), the Whiskey Rebellion offers a fascinating glimpse into the tumultuous first decade of the US democratic experiment, a time when, in the words of historian John R. Howe, “events were viewed in apocalyptic terms with the very survival of republican liberty [always] riding in the balance.” Written in the mold of a Shakespearean history play and similar in spirit to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s ongoing American History Cycle project (see New Yorker profile linked below), this script (part one of two) dramatizes the political and social circumstances of Washington’s first Presidential term, both in the capital and on the Pennsylvania frontier, which eventually led to the infamous stand-off at Neville’s home (this draft’s final scene). At the federal level, it focuses on Alexander Hamilton’s efforts to establish the national debt, charter the first national bank, stave off the economic panic of 1792, and navigate the partisan divide growing between him and Jefferson/Madison. In western Pennsylvania, it follows Hugh Henry Brackenridge, a Princeton educated lawyer who moved to Pittsburgh to help civilize the frontier, as he unsuccessfully tries to mediate between the populist anger of his neighbors and the patrician indifference of federal policymakers.
“Playwrights Try to Reinvent the History Play” The New Yorker (August 2016):
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/american-playwrights-try-to-reinvent-the-history-play