SOURCE: "Meeting the Demands of a Growing Theatre, 1783-1800," in An Emerging Entertainment: The Drama of the American People to 1828, Indiana University Press, 1977, pp. 126-55.

In this excerpt from a study of early American drama, Meserve outlines Murray's contributions to the development of eighteenth-century theater.

It is relatively easy to pluck out of any given period of history the names of people who have made outstanding contributions to the drama. Winners become a part of the record books. But just as there are those innumerable details of everyday life which contribute to the creation of greater events, there are those lesser playwrights who help make a history of the drama: those who provide the prologues which introduce the main attraction, those who write the curtain raisers or afterpieces which fill out the evening, those who create the plays which keep the theatre open while a major production is...