Federal Theatre Project


The Federal Theatre Project was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States. It was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ artists, writers, directors, and theater workers. It was shaped by national director Hallie Flanagan into a federation of regional theaters that created relevant art, encouraged experimentation in new forms and techniques, and made it possible for millions of Americans to see live theatre for the first time. Although The Federal Theatre project consumed only 0.5% of the allocated budget from the WPA and was widely considered a commercial and critical success, the project became a source of heated political contention.OAH Magazine of History, vol. 11, no. 2, 1997, pp. 50–52. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25163137"> The House Un-American Activities Committee claimed the content of the FTP's productions were supporting racial integration between black and white Americans while also perpetuating an anti-capitalist communist agenda and cancelled funding for the project on June 30, 1939.

Background

Part of the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Theatre Project was a New Deal program established August 27, 1935, funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Of the $4.88 billion allocated to the WPA, $27 million was approved for the employment of artists, musicians, writers and actors under the WPA's Federal Project Number One.
Government relief efforts through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Civil Works Administration in the two preceding years were amateur experiments regarded as charity, not a theatre program. The Federal Theatre Project was a new approach to unemployment in the theatre profession. Only those certified as employable could be offered work, and that work was to be within the individual's defined skills and trades.
"For the first time in the relief experiments of this country the preservation of the skill of the worker, and hence the preservation of his self-respect, became important," wrote Hallie Flanagan, director of the Federal Theatre Project. A theater professor at Vassar College who had studied the operation of government-sponsored theatre abroad for the Guggenheim Foundation, Flanagan was chosen to head the Federal Theatre Project by WPA head Harry Hopkins, a former classmate at Grinnell College. Roosevelt and Hopkins selected her despite considerable pressure to choose someone from the commercial theatre; they believed the project should be led by someone with academic credentials and a national perspective.
Flanagan was given the daunting task of building a nationwide theater program to employ thousands of unemployed artists in as little time as possible. The problems of the theatre preceded the financial collapse of 1929. By that time it was already threatened with extinction due to the growing popularity of films and radio, but the commercial theatre was reluctant to adapt its practices. Many actors, technicians and stagehands had suffered since 1914, when movies began to replace stock, vaudeville and other live stage performances nationwide. Sound motion pictures displaced 30,000 musicians. In the Great Depression, people who had no money for entertainment found an entire evening of entertainment at the movies for 25 cents, while commercial theatre charged $1.10 to $2.20 admission to cover the cost of theater rental, advertising and fees to performers and union technicians. Unemployed directors, actors, designers, musicians and stagecrew took any kind of work they were able to find, whatever it paid, and charity was often their only recourse.
"This is a tough job we're asking you to do," Hopkins told Flanagan at their first meeting in May 1935. "I don't know why I still hang on to the idea that unemployed actors get just as hungry as anybody else."
Hopkins promised "a free, adult, uncensored theatre" — something Flanagan spent the next four years trying to build. She emphasized the development of local and regional theatre, "to lay the foundation for the development of a truly creative theatre in the United States with outstanding producing centers in each of those regions which have common interests as a result of geography, language origins, history, tradition, custom, occupations of the people."

Operation

On October 24, 1935, Flanagan prefaced her instructions on the Federal Theatre's operation with a statement of purpose:
The primary aim of the Federal Theatre Project is the reemployment of theatre workers now on public relief rolls: actors, directors, playwrights, designers, vaudeville artists, stage technicians, and other workers in the theatre field. The far reaching purpose is the establishment of theatres so vital to community life that they will continue to function after the program of this Federal Project is completed.

Within a year the Federal Theatre Project employed 15,000 men and women, paying them $23.86 a week. During its nearly four years of existence it played to 30 million people in more than 200 theaters nationwide — renting many that had been shuttered — as well as parks, schools, churches, clubs, factories, hospitals and closed-off streets. Its productions totalled approximately 1,200, not including its radio programs. Because the Federal Theatre was created to employ and train people, not to generate revenue, no provision was made for the receipt of money when the project began. At its conclusion, 65 percent of its productions were still presented free of charge. The total cost of the Federal Theatre Project was $46 million.
"In any consideration of the cost of the Federal Theatre," Flanagan wrote, "it should be borne in mind that the funds were allotted, according to the terms of the Relief Act of 1935, to pay wages to unemployed people. Therefore, when Federal Theatre was criticized for spending money, it was criticized for doing what it was set up to do."
The Federal Theatre Project established five regional centers in New York, New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. The FTP did not operate in every state, since many lacked a sufficient number of unemployed people in the theatre profession. The project in Alabama was closed in January 1937 when its personnel were transferred to a new unit in Georgia. Only one event was presented in Arkansas. Units created in Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin were closed in 1936; projects in Indiana, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Texas were discontinued in 1937; and the Iowa project was closed in 1938.
Many of the notable artists of the time participated in the Federal Theatre Project, including Susan Glaspell who served as Midwest bureau director. The legacy of the Federal Theatre Project can also be found in beginning the careers of a new generation of theater artists. Arthur Miller, Orson Welles, John Houseman, Martin Ritt, Elia Kazan, Joseph Losey, Marc Blitzstein and Abe Feder are among those who became established, in part, through their work in the Federal Theatre. Blitzstein, Houseman, Welles and Feder collaborated on the controversial production, The Cradle Will Rock.

Living Newspaper

s were plays written by teams of researchers-turned-playwrights. These men and women clipped articles from newspapers about current events, often hot button issues like farm policy, syphilis testing, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and housing inequity. These newspaper clippings were adapted into plays intended to inform audiences, often with progressive or left-wing themes. Triple-A Plowed Under, for instance, attacked the U.S. Supreme Court for killing an aid agency for farmers. These politically themed plays quickly drew criticism from members of Congress.
Although the undisguised political invective in the Living Newspapers sparked controversy, they also proved popular with audiences. As an art form, the Living Newspaper is perhaps the Federal Theatre's most well-known work.
Problems with the Federal Theatre Project and Congress intensified when the State Department objected to the first Living Newspaper, Ethiopia, about Haile Selassie and his nation's struggles against Benito Mussolini's invading Italian forces. The U.S. government soon mandated that the Federal Theatre Project, a government agency, could not depict foreign heads of state on the stage for fear of diplomatic backlash. Playwright and director Elmer Rice, head of the New York office of the FTP, resigned in protest and was succeeded by his assistant, Philip W. Barber.

New productions

Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented.
TitleAuthorCityDates
Highlights of 1935Living Newspaper staffNew YorkMay 12–30, 1936
Injunction GrantedLiving Newspaper staffNew YorkJuly 24–October 20, 1936
Living Newspaper, First EditionCleveland BronnerNorwalk, Conn.June 1–July 2, 1936
Living Newspaper, Second EditionCleveland BronnerNorwalk, Conn.August 18–25, 1936
The Living NewspaperProject staffClevelandMarch 11–28, 1936
One-Third of a NationArthur ArentNew York + 9January 17–October 22, 1938
PowerArthur ArentNew York + 4February 23–July 10, 1937
SpirocheteArnold SundgaardChicago + 4April 29–June 4, 1938
Triple-A Plowed UnderLiving Newspaper staffNew York + 4March 14–May 2, 1936

African-American theatre

The Negro Theatre Unit was part of the Federal Theatre Project and had units that were set up in cities throughout the United States. Capitalizing on the FTP's national network and inherent diversity of artists, the Federal Theater established specific chapters dedicated to showcasing and celebrating the work of previously under represented artists. Including the French Theater in Los Angeles, the German Theater in New York City, and the Negro Theatre Unit which had several chapters across the country, with its largest office in New York City. The NTU had additional offices in Hartford, Boston, Salem, Newark, and Philadelphia in the East; Seattle Portland, and Los Angeles in the West; Cleveland, Detroit, Peoria, and Chicago in the Midwest; and Raleigh, Atlanta, Birmingham, and New Orleans in the South; There were additional units in San Francisco Oklahoma, Durham, Camden, and Buffalo. By the project's conclusion 22 American cities had served as headquarters for black theater units.
The New York Negro Theatre Unit was the most well known. Two of the four federal theaters in New York City—Lafayette Theatre and the Negro Youth Theater— were dedicated to the Harlem community with the intention of developing unknown theatre artists.
Both theatre projects were headquartered at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, where some 30 plays were presented. The first was Frank H. Wilson's folk drama, Walk Together Chillun, about the deportation of 100 African-Americans from the South to the North to work for low wages. The second was Conjur' Man Dies, a comedy-mystery adapted by Arna Bontemps and Countee Cullen from Rudolph Fisher's novel. The most popular production was the third, which came to be called the Voodoo Macbeth, director Orson Welles's adaptation of Shakespeare's play set on a mythical island suggesting the Haitian court of King Henri Christophe.
The New York Negro Theatre Unit also oversaw projects from the African American Dance Unit featuring Nigerian artists displaced by the Ethiopian Crisis. These projects employed over 1,000 black actors and directors.
The Federal Theatre Project was distinguished for its focus on racial injustice. Flanagan expressly ordered her subordinates to follow the WPA policy against racial prejudice. In fact when it came to making decisions on a national level for the project is was mandated that "there may be racial representation in all national planning". A specific example of the FTP's adherence to an anti-prejudicial environment came when a white project manager in Dallas was fired for attempted to segregate black and white theater technicians on a railroad car. Additionally, the white assistant director of the project was pulled because "he was unable to work amicably" with the black artists.
The FTP overtly sought out relationships with the African American community including Carter Woodson of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, as well as Walter White of the NAACP. One of the existing stipulations from the Works Progress Administration for employment in the FTP was prior professional theater experience. However when encountered with 40 young jobless black playwrights national director Hallie Flanagan waived the WPA requirement in the interest of providing a platform and training ground for new young playwrights. During a national conference Flanagan proposed that the leadership of the Harlem chapter of the FTP be led by an African American artist. Rose McClendon, an established actor at the time, publicly argued against this proposal and instead suggested that initially an established white theater artist take the mantle with the understanding and intention of satisfying the WPA's prior professional theater experience clause and giving way to black artists to lead the chapter. This argument from McClendon received support from Edna Thomas, Harry Edwards, Carlton Moss, Abraham Hale Jr., Augusta Smith and Dick Campbell.
This crusade for equality eventually became a sticking point for the Dies Committee, which pulled funding for the Federal Theater Project citing "racial equality forms a vital part of the Communist dictatorship and practices".

New drama productions

Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented.
TitleAuthorCityDates
Accident PolicyArthur AkersBirminghamJuly 31–August 3, 1936
Advent and Nativity of Christadapted by Hedley Gordon GrahamNew YorkDecember 20–24, 1937
Bassa Moona Momodu Johnson, Norman CokerNew YorkDecember 8, 1936 – March 20, 1937
Big White FogTheodore WardChicagoApril 7–May 30, 1938
Black EmpireChristine Ames, Clarke PainterLos Angeles + 1March 16–July 19, 1936
The Case of Philip LawrenceGeorge MacEntreeNew YorkJune 8–July 31, 1937
Conjur' Man DiesRudolph Fisher, adapted by Arna Bontemps and Countee CullenNew York + 1March 11–July 4, 1936
Did Adam Sin?Lew PaytonChicagoApril 30–May 14, 1936
An Evening with DunbarPaul Laurence Dunbar, adapted by project staffSeattleOctober 31–December 17, 1938
Great DayM. WoodBirminghamOctober 7, 1936
HaitiWilliam DuBoisNew York + 1March 2–November 5, 1938
Heaven BoundNellie Lindley Davis, adapted by Julian HarrisAtlantaOctober 10, 1937 – January 8, 1938
Home in GloryClyde LimbaughBirminghamApril 16–May 15, 1936
It Can't Happen HereSinclair Lewis, John C. MoffittSeattleOctober 27–November 6, 1936
JerichoH. L. FishelPhiladelphia + 3October 16, 1937 – April 4, 1938
John HenryFrank WellsLos AngelesSeptember 30–October 18, 1936
LysistrataAristophanes, adapted by Theodore BrowneSeattleSeptember 17, 1936
MacbethWilliam Shakespeare, adapted by Orson WellesNew York + 8April 14–October 17, 1936
The Natural ManTheodore BrowneSeattleJanuary 28–February 20, 1937
The Swing Mikadoadapted from Gilbert and SullivanChicago + 3September 25, 1938 – February 25, 1939
Return to DeathP. Washington PorterHolyoke, Mass.August 17–20, 1938
The Reverend Takes His TextRalf ColemanRoxbury, Mass. + 3December 12, 1936
Romey and JulieRobert Dunmore, Ruth ChorpenningChicagoApril 1–25, 1936
Sweet LandConrad SeilerNew YorkJanuary 19–February 27, 1937
The Taming of the ShrewWilliam Shakespeare, adapted by project staffSeattleJune 19–24, 1939
The Trial of Dr. BeckHughes AllisonNew Jersey Spots + 2June 3–12, 1937
Trilogy in BlackWard CourtneyHartfordJune 18, 1937
TurpentineJ. Augustus Smith, Peter MorellNew YorkJune 26–September 5, 1936
Unto Such GloryPaul GreenNew YorkMay 6–July 10, 1936
Walk Together ChillunFrank H. WilsonNew YorkFebruary 4–March 7, 1936

Standard drama productions

Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented.
TitleAuthorCityDates
Androcles and the LionGeorge Bernard ShawSeattle + 2November 1–6, 1937
BloodstreamFrederick SchlickBostonMarch 17–27, 1937
Bound East for CardiffEugene O'NeillNew YorkOctober 29, 1937 – January 15, 1938
Brother MoseFrank H. WilsonNew York + 20July 25, 1934 – December 21, 1935
CindaH. J. BatesBoston + 4January 21–24, 1936
The Emperor JonesEugene O'NeillHartford + 1October 21–23, 1937
The Field GodPaul GreenHartfordFebruary 17–19, 1938
GenesisH. J. Bates, Charles FlatoHyde Park, Mass. + 2February 26, 1936
Hymn to the Rising SunPaul GreenNew YorkMay 6–July 10, 1937
In Abraham's BosomPaul GreenSeattle + 1April 21–May 22, 1937
In the ValleyPaul GreenHartfordSeptember 7–10, 1938
In the ZoneEugene O'NeillNew YorkOctober 29, 1937 – January 15, 1938
Just Ten DaysJ. Aubrey SmithNew YorkAugust 10–September 10, 1937
The Long Voyage HomeEugene O'NeillNew YorkOctober 29, 1937 – January 15, 1938
Mississippi Rainbow John Charles BrownellCleveland + 7April 18–May 10, 1936
The Moon of the CaribbeesEugene O'NeillNew YorkOctober 29, 1937 – January 15, 1938
NoahAndré ObeySeattle + 4April 28–July 8, 1936
PorgyDuBose Heyward, Dorothy HeywardHartfordMarch 17–May 14, 1938
Roll, Sweet ChariotPaul GreenNew OrleansJune 16–18, 1936
Run, Little ChillunHall JohnsonLos Angeles + 2July 22, 1938 – June 10, 1939
The Sabine WomenLeonid AndreyevHartfordDecember 15–17, 1936
The Show-OffGeorge KellyHartfordMarch 5–July 3, 1937
StevedorePaul Peters, George SklarSeattleMarch 25–May 9, 1937
Swamp MudHarold CourlanderBirminghamJuly 11, 1936
The World We Live InJosef Čapek, Karel ČapekHartfordJanuary 13–15, 1938

Dance drama

New productions

Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented.
TitleAuthorCityDates
AdelanteHelen TamirisNew YorkApril 20–May 6, 1939
All the Weary PeopleProject staffPortland, Ore.September 28, 1937
An American ExodusMyra KinchLos Angeles + 1July 27, 1937 – January 4, 1939
Ballet FedreBerta Ochsner, Grace and Kurt Graff, Katherine DunhamChicagoJanuary 27–February 19, 1938
Bonneville DamProject staffTimberline Lodge, Ore.September 29, 1937
CandideCharles WeidmanNew YorkJune 19–30, 1936
The Eternal ProdigalGluck-SandorNew YorkDecember 2, 1936 – January 2, 1937
Fantasy 1939 Berta Ochsner, David CampbellNew YorkJune 26–27, 1939
Federal BalletRuth Page, Kurt GraffChicago + 5June 19–July 30, 1938
Federal Ballet Ruth Page, Bentley StoneChicago + 1March 1–25, 1939
Folk Dances of All NationsLilly MehlmanNew YorkDecember 27, 1937 – April 11, 1938
How Long BrethrenHelen TamirisNew York + 1May 6, 1937 – January 15, 1938
Invitation to the DanceJosef CastleTampaJuly 18–22, 1937
Little MermaidRoger Pryor DodgeNew YorkDecember 27, 1937 – April 11, 1938
El Maestro de BalletSenia SolomonoffTampaJuly 18–22, 1937
Modern Dance GroupProject staffPhiladelphiaMarch 29, 1939
Mother Goose on ParadeNadia ChilkovskyNew YorkDecember 27, 1937 – April 11, 1938
Music in FairylandMyra KinchLos AngelesDecember 25, 1937 – January 1, 1938
Prelude to SwingMelvina FriedPhiladelphiaJune 12–30, 1939
Salut au MondeHelen TamirisNew YorkJuly 23–August 5, 1936–
Texas FlavorB. CollieDallasNovember 8–30, 1936
Trojan IncidentEuripides, adapted by Philip H. DavisNew YorkApril 21–May 21, 1938
With My Red Fires, To the Dance, The Race of LifeDoris HumphreyNew YorkJanuary 30–February 4, 1939
Young TrampsDon Oscar BecqueNew YorkAugust 6–8, 1936

Foreign-language drama

These plays were given their first professional production in the United States by the Federal Theatre Project. Titles are shown as they appeared on event programs. Numbers following the city of origin indicate the number of additional cities where the play was presented.

New productions

German

Spanish

Yiddish

Radio

The Federal Theatre of the Air began weekly broadcasts March 15, 1936. For three years the radio division of the Federal Theatre Project presented an average of 3,000 programs annually on commercial stations and the NBC, Mutual and CBS networks. The major programs originated in New York; radio divisions were also created in 11 states.
Series included Professional Parade, hosted by Fred Niblo; Experiments in Symphonic Drama, original stories written for classical music; Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera, the complete works performed by Federal Theatre actors and recordings by D'Oyly Carte; Ibsen's Plays, performances of 12 major plays; Repertory Theatre of the Air, presenting literary classics; Contemporary Theatre, presenting plays by modern authors; and the interview program, Exploring the Arts and Sciences.
The radio division presented a wide range of programs on health and safety, art, music and history. The American Legion sponsored James Truslow Adams's Epic of America. The children's program, Once Upon a Time, and Paul de Kruif's Men Against Death were both honored by the National Committee for Education by Radio. In March 1939, at the invitation of the BBC, Flanagan broadcast the story of the Federal Theatre Project to Britain. Asked to expand the program to encompass the entire WPA, the radio division produced No Help Wanted, a dramatization by William N. Robson with music by Leith Stevens. The Times called it "the best broadcast ever sent us from the Americas".

Funding pulled by House Committee on Un-American Activities

In May 1938, Martin Dies Jr., director of The House Committee on Un-American Activities specifically targeted the WPA's Federal Theatre Project. Assailing Flanagan's professional character and political affiliations, the committee heard testimony from former Federal Theatre Project members who were unhappy with their tenure with the project. Flanagan testified that the FTP was pro-American in so far as the work celebrated the constitutional freedoms of speech and expression to address the relevant and pressing concerns of its citizens.
Citing the Federal Theatre's call for racial equality, impending war, and further perpetuating the rumor that the FTP was a front for radical and communist activities federal funding was abruptly pulled on June 30, 1939, immediately putting 8,000 people out of work across the country. Despite the claims of subversive and anti-American sentiment, in the eyes of Congress it was the American theatregoer that led to the demise of the FTP. Although the overall financial impact of the FTP was minuscule in the grand scheme of the WPA's budget, congress determined that the average American didn't consider theater as a viable recipient of their tax dollars. Following the decision, Flanagan's stepdaughter, Joanne Bentley quoted an unnamed Congressmen saying "Culture! What the Hell—Let 'em have a pick and shovel!"
A total of 81 of the Federal Theatre Project's 830 major titles were criticized by members of Congress for their content in public statements, committee hearings, on the floor of the Senate or House, or in testimony before Congressional committees. Only 29 were original productions of the Federal Theatre Project. The others included 32 revivals or stock productions; seven plays that were initiated by community groups; five that were never produced by the project; two works of Americana; two classics; one children's play; one Italian translation; and one Yiddish play.
The Living Newspapers that drew criticism were Injunction Granted, a history of American labor relations; One-Third of a Nation, about housing conditions in New York; Power, about energy from the consumer's point of view; and Triple A Plowed Under, on farming problems in America. Another that was criticized, on the history of medicine, was not completed.
Dramas criticized by Congress were American Holiday, about a small-town murder trial; Around the Corner, a Depression-era comedy; Chalk Dust, about an urban high school; Class of '29, the Depression years as seen through young college graduates; Created Equal, a review of American life since colonial times; It Can't Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis's parable of democracy and dictatorship; No More Peace, Ernst Toller's satire on dictatorships; Professor Mamlock, about Nazi persecution of Jews; Prologue to Glory, about the early life of Abraham Lincoln; The Sun and I, about Joseph in Egypt; and Woman of Destiny, about a female President who works for peace.
Negro Theatre Unit productions that drew criticism were The Case of Philip Lawrence, a portrait of life in Harlem; Did Adam Sin?, a review of black folklore with music; and Haiti, a play about Toussaint Louverture.
Also criticized for their content were the dance dramas Candide, from Voltaire; How Long Brethren, featuring songs by future Guggenheim Fellowship recipient Lawrence Gellert; and Trojan Incident, a translation of Euripides with a prologue from Homer.
Help Yourself, a satire on high-pressure business tactics, was among the comedies criticized by Congress. Others were Machine Age, about mass production; On the Rocks by George Bernard Shaw; and The Tailor Becomes a Storekeeper.
Children's plays singled out were Mother Goose Goes to Town, and Revolt of the Beavers, which the New York American called a "pleasing fantasy for children".
The musical Sing for Your Supper also met with Congressional criticism, although its patriotic finale, "Ballad for Americans", was chosen as the theme song of the 1940 Republican National Convention.

Cultural references

A fictionalized view of the Federal Theatre Project is presented in the 1999 film Cradle Will Rock, in which Cherry Jones portrays Hallie Flanagan.

Additional references

  • Federal Theatre, 1935–1939: Plays, Relief, and Politics. Princeton University Press, 2015.
  • Goldstein, Malcolm. The Political Stage: American Drama and Theater of the Great Depression. Oxford University Press, 1974.
  • Jefferson, Miles M. "The Negro on Broadway, 1947-1948". Phylon, vol. 9, no. 2, 1948, p. 99., doi:10.2307/272176.
  • Norflett, Linda Kerr. “Rosetta LeNoire: The Lady and Her Theatre". Black American Literature Forum, vol. 17, no. 2, 1983, p. 69., doi:10.2307/2904582.
  • Pool, Rosey E. "The Negro Actor in Europe". Phylon, vol. 14, no. 3, 1 Sept. 1953, pp. 258–267. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/271466?refreqid=search-gateway:0a4e4b9a53d893b23f2ee26ce846367f.
  • Roses, Lorraine Elena. Black Bostonians and the Politics of Culture, 1920-1940. University of Massachusetts Press, 2017.
  • Shandell, Jonathan. The American Negro Theatre and the Long Civil Rights Era. University of Iowa Press, 2018.