The growth of the early American theatre owed more to its actors than to its dramatists. In the early decades of the 19th century, the finest English actors, notably Edmund Kean, William Charles Macready, and Charles Kemble, visited the United States and provided a stimulus for the local actors with whom they worked. Before long, the gesture was returned when such American actors as Edwin Booth, Edwin Forrest, and Charlotte Saunders Cushman appeared with some success on the London stage. Forrest, whose acting was characterized by muscular strength and great vocal power, was perhaps the first to popularize the virile ...(100 of 31765 words)