Source Festival

FULL-LENGTH PLAY: A Lesson on Volcanic in Origin by LaRonika Thomas, Associate Producer & Dramaturg

“In a recent bulletin of the Superintendent of the Census for 1890 appear these significant words: ‘Up to and including 1880, the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into  isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports.’ This brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development.”

The Significance of the Frontier in American History, Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893 

“When Coronado passed through the area in the 16th century, he described an acute sense of European disorientation as his men struggled to plot a course across a place ‘with no more landmarks than if we had been swallowed up by the sea.’” 

 “The American West as Classroom, Art and Metaphor,” Randy Kennedy. New York Times, May 3, 2011.

When Frederick Jackson Turner presented his paper at the American Historical Association, during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he set out what came to be known as the Frontier Thesis, or Turner Thesis, positing that a driving force of the American character, what set us apart from Europeans, was the effect of the frontier.  A defining characteristic of being American was the need to improvise when confronting the so-called wilderness, to make one’s own laws and rules when carving out a home in the uncharted landscape.

 Turner was also concerned, and he was not the only one, about the future development of what may be called “American-ness,” now that the frontier was broken up due to extensive settlement and development of the West.  If Americans are defined by the confrontation and development unknown lands, what happens to our national identity when there are no more of these lands?  This seems to be an incredible question to ask just 90 years after Lewis & Clark’s historic expedition west. Turner’s essay intertwines the idea of being an American with the geography and geology of the land, and, despite his many critics and his obvious and grand oversight that the American West was already settled before any Caucasian arrived, it influences thinking about America to this day.

 Lewis and Clark’s expedition, mandated by Thomas Jefferson, was approved by congress prior to the Louisiana Purchase.  When the United States doubled its size thanks to this sale of land, the expedition’s importance increased, as it would now be mapping land belonging to this young country. Both born before the American Revolution, Meriwether Lewis was 30 and William Clark was 34 when they set out with 31 other members of the Corps of Discovery.  They could not have predicted the ultimate physical or emotional route of their journey.  They faced starvation, bears, cold, unfriendly tribes and more.  And, while only one man perished during their three-year trek, it could be said that they were lost and in danger more than once.  The expedition set in motion not only the first organized mapping and naming of the American West, but also a host of other events and consequences, including relationships with Native American tribes, and the discovery (by which is meant perhaps the description for white American ears) of many of the West’s incredible natural features.  These natural features would eventually become many of our nation’s national parks.  Yosemite, the world’s first national park, was an extraordinary experiment in democracy, perhaps one could say in “American-ness,” as it is an open space for anyone, regardless of economic status or origin, to explore.  Today the 1,200 square mile park is visited by at least 3.7 million people from around the world each year. 

“I grew up in Indiana and Michigan, but really feel like Chicago, where I lived for six years before moving to Baltimore, is home.”  “I spent my childhood bouncing from place to place thanks to my dad’s career – I’ve lived all over, but feel most at home in Portland.  I came to go to college and haven’t left yet.”  “I only ever lived in Kansas City, and I only ever want to live in Kansas City.”  “No matter where I go, I’m a Southern girl at heart.”  “I escaped to the city as soon as I could.”  “I left the city as soon as I could.” 

All of these are statements overheard in DC over the past month. 

Just like the actual Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery, and Frederick Jackson Turner, and the characters of Greg Hischak’s Volcanic in Origin, we each attempt to name, and therefore to possess, what is unknown to us, and the idea of place is, one might argue, just as important to our identity as Americans as it ever was.  We Americans are a genuine hodgepodge of people mostly originally from other places, and our idea of ourselves as individuals and as a country continues to change.  We get lost in order to find ourselves and each other, we lie about where we are going and where we want to go, telling the truth only to a select few companions, and we reveal our true natures by our staying and our going.  The frontier exists as much in our hearts and minds as on a map, here in this evolving American landscape.

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