From Tombstone to Tucson, from Phoenix to Prescott, bright particular stars lit up the theatres that our pioneers built to accommodate them and their carloads of scenery and costumes. Audiences wept, booed, and cheered for heart-rending melodramas like East Lynne and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Larger-than-life tragedians like Louis James and Thomas W. Keene stormed the stage in Shakespeare’s greatest works. Minstrel troupes sang and danced their hearts out. This lavishly illustrated readers theatre presentation traces the development of Atlantic Coast theatrical culture in the Arizona Territory, which wasn’t all lawlessness and violence. Humorous anecdotes and snatches of dialogue from the plays make this history an entertaining treat.