A historical review of early entrepreneurial theatrical activity in a growing railroad center

The railway system played a large part in the industrialization of America and the migration westward, and was also a major cause for the growth of the American theatre, especially in the American frontier. It provided an exceptional opportunity for any entrepreneurially oriented, as well as economically dissatisfied actor who followed these pioneers in these territories and helped established theatres to meet the cultural expectations of the pioneer audience. As long as there was economic development in a pioneer region, and as long as there was adequate transportation, especially railroad, a pioneer town became a center in which people from surrounding areas usually congregated and theatres flourished. The purpose of this paper is to undertake one such historical review of entrepreneurial theatrical emergence as a contributing societal platform of civic, cultural, and artistic perspectives and realities in the development of a locale, namely, the railroad center of Jackson, Michigan.