The Rochester of 1848 contained multitudes. Frederick Douglass published “The North Star” across the street from the stately Corinthian Hall downtown. Activists rallied for women’s suffrage in nearby Seneca Falls. And a rural house 30 miles east of the Flower City became the epicenter of two young girls communicating with spirits.
Against this backdrop opens the action of “The Summer Land,” a new play written by Tappan, New York native Kate Royal, which The Company Theatre will present from Nov. 8-17. Royal, a SUNY Geneseo graduate and a former artist-in-residence at MuCCC, pulls these threads together to present a historical era with contemporary undertones.
“In this time, Rochester is the epicenter of progress and the American imagination of what this society can be,” Royal said. “This is the moment where so much of American identity was not even formed.”
The sisters, Maggie and Kate Fox, demonstrated their mediumship through various cracking sounds, which came to be called “rappings.” The elder Fox sister, Leah, brought Maggie and Kate to Rochester (and beyond) to show off their supernatural prowess.
Their demonstrations lit the fire for the widespread movement called Spiritualism that came to define the era. It may have even influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation of the preternaturally gifted detective Sherlock Holmes.
“The blacksmith’s daughters became celebrities,” journalist Arch Merrill wrote in his 1946 “Rochester Sketchbook.” “They traveled to many cities. They led rather spectacular lives.”
Royal’s play does not revolve around any one of the Foxes, instead centering on Amy Post, a local Quaker and early booster of the sisters who was deeply involved in the abolitionist and women’s rights movements.
“She was the nexus of all of that,” Royal said, calling her a “tortured protagonist” emblematic of Spiritualism’s far-reaching implications — as was Leah Fox.
“Both of those women represent facets of the American identity: progress and capitalism,” Royal said. “It really is these two warring ideologies and how they both are trying to use these girls as a means of forwarding those agendas.”
Much dramatic tension can be found in the actual practices of Spiritualism, too. Carl Del Buono, the show’s director, said the crew paid particular attention to the physicality of the Fox sisters’ readings as they aimed to translate that to the stage.
“What does it do to Maggie’s voice when she’s being stretched, when her neck is exposed and she’s sort of open?” Del Buono said. “What does it do for Kate Fox when she’s channeling all of this stuff and letting it pass through her?”
A stage show that examines American identity through lenses of seances, spirit guides and 19th-century progressive causes is a bold feat. It’s so intrepid that Royal had to look to the greats for inspiration.
“I mean this not in an egotistical way, but I want to write my ‘Angels in America,’” Royal said, also evoking Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” as another theatrical touch point.
How can “The Summer Land” follow in the footsteps of those heavyweights? Del Buono said they’ve tapped into a method from Transcendentalism, a philosophical movement that immediately predated the Spiritualists.
“We talked a lot about allowing yourself to be the transparent eyeball, taking everything in and then letting it flow through you,” he said.
Sounds just spiritual enough to work.
“The Summer Land” runs Nov. 8-17 at the Temple Theater. Find more information here.
Patrick Hosken is an arts writer for CITY. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2024.
