Two Early Norwegian Dramatic Societies in Chicago

TWO EARLY NORWEGIAN DRAMATIC SOCIETIES IN CHICAGO* BY NAPIER WILT AND HENRIETTE C. KOREN NAESETH As students of American life and literature are becoming increasingly aware of the cultural problems and contributions of the immigrant, the story of the theatrical activities of various national groups in America is gradually being recorded . German, French, and Yiddish theatricals have been widely reported, and their importance has been commonly accepted. The extent to which immigrants from other countries have maintained their cultures through drama is, however, generally unguessed. That Scandinavians early evidenced and long maintained an interest in their native theater has been known through scattered records only. As a beginning in the direction of a more complete story of their presentation of Scandinavian drama in America, this article will relate the early history of the drama in Norwegian in Chicago, which reveals itself as a splendid example of the significance of immigrant efforts in the theater. With the decade 1860-70 came the period of mass emigration from Norway.1 The majority of the emigrants were seeking farms, but a distinct Norwegian colony was formed in the important urban center of Chicago. Within this decade there were two successful attempts to enliven the society of this colony through Norwegian drama. The first was led by Marcus Thrane, who directed a series of theatrical per- * This article owes its inception to the study of Scandinavian theatricals in Chicago undertaken as part of the history of the theater in Chicago, which is being prepared at the University of Chicago under Dr. Napier Wilt. Ed. 1A slowly rising immigration from Norway had begun in 1825, and from the forties on there had been a rapid increase in the number of immigrants. The great tide came in 1880-90, but from 1865 to 1879, 74,403 Norwegian immigrants came to the United States. Theodore C. Biegen, Norwegian Migration to America, 1825-1860, 19 (Northfield, Minnesota, 1931). 44 NORWEGIAN DRAMATIC SOCIETIES 45 formances from 1866 to 1868; the second, which probably grew out of his efforts, was sponsored by the first organized Norwegian dramatic society in Chicago of which we have records, the Norské Dramatiske Forening, which presented plays from 1868 to 1872. The significance of these early enterprises is clear, although they loom small against the background of Chicago's theatrical history, and even against the more restricted background of Scandinavian theatricals in Chicago; for they preceded many societies among the three Scandinavian groups there which have flourished up to the present day. The career in Norway of Marcus Thrane, the young Norwegian of distinguished family who suffered imprisonment and exile for his work as a pioneer labor leader and reformer, is well known. Of his varied activities after he came to America in 1863, his journalism is best remembered. Coming to Chicago after a year in New York, he began in 1865 the publication of Den norské amerìkaner, which he sold in 1866. There he also intermittently published Dagslyset, a philosophic religious, monthly, from 1869 to 1873.2 Of his attempts to further the cultural life of his countrymen in Chicago through the theater there remains hardly a trace. In 1927 Scandio, reprinted from the Litteraere Samfund's Forum an article by " Per i Stua " (Carl Berg) giving recollections of the Norwegian theater in Chicago, with the laudable intention of encouraging the preservation in book form of what the national group has achieved in this field. A brief paragraph recalls that in 1867-68 Marcus Thrane produced a few small pieces, some of which he wrote himself, as Et uskikkelig -pig ebarn? Known Thrane papers offer no fuller 2 Biegen, Norwegian Migration , 323-329; Jacob Friis, Marcus Thrane (Christiania , 1917); Waldemar Westergaard, " Marcus Thrane in America: Some Unpublished Letters from 1880-1884," in Norwegian-American Studies and Records , 9:67-76 (Northfield, Minnesota, 1936); Johannes B. Wist, "Pressen efter borgerkrigen ," in N orsk-amerikanernes festskrift, 91-93 (Decorah, Iowa, 1914). 8 " Teaterminde fra Chicago," in Scandia , December 17, 1927. This paper and a copy of a valuable number of Skandinaven for 1903 were made available through the kindness of Mr. Christian Olson of Chicago. 46 STUDIES AND RECORDS record, though the theatricals remained a...