The beginnings of drama in America, to distinguish them from the early life of the theater, are not quite clearly known. The first romantic drama, and the first play written by an American and produced by a professional company, was Thomas Godfrey's "The Prince of Parthia," completed by 1759 and acted in 1767 at the Southwark Theater, Philadelphia. The first drama on native American material--an unproduced problem play--was Robert Rogers's "Ponteach," published in London in 1766. The first American comedy to be produced by a professional company was Royall Tyler's "The Contrast," acted in 1787 at the John Street Theater, New York. The first professional American playwright was William Dunlap (1766-1839), author and producer, who wrote, adapted, and translated over sixty plays, operas, sketches, farces, and interludes, of which at least fifty were produced and nearly thirty have been published. The first actor and playwright of more than local prominence was John Howard Payne (1791-1852), more original than Dunlap and equally prolific, with one or two great successes and eighteen published plays to his credit. The history of the American drama, as yet unwritten, will be a big work when it is fully done, for the output has been very large. Three hundred and seventy-eight plays are known to have been published by 1830 and nearly twice that number to have been played by 1860. In the remainder of this chapter, the aim of which is to induce study of plays within the reach of the average college class, four dramas will be discussed because they are interesting in themselves and because they are early representatives of types which still prevail.