Contrast, The

Royal Tyler’s The Contrast is the first American play to be performed in public by a company of professional actors. The premiere took place in New York City in April 16, 1787. The plot of this comedy centers on a man from the country on a visit to town. He drops into a theater with the expectation of seeing “a hocus pocus man.” Instead, he sits out a performance of The School for Scandal without any notion that he has visited a playhouse.