The
Works Projects Administration (WPA) was
established by Franklin
D. Roosevelt in 1935 as part of the New
Deal attempt to combat the Depression.
This included the Federal
Theatre Project (FTP), an attempt to offer work to theatrical professionals.
Harry Hopkins, hoped it would also provide
"free, adult, uncensored theatre". Hallie
Flanagan was named national director.
Over a thousand theatre productions took place in twenty-two different
states. Many of these were given free in schools and community centres.
Although performers were only paid $22.73 a week, the FWP employed
some of America's most talented artists. In 1934 Orson
Welles directed Macbeth
for the Negro People's Theatre. He also directed The
Cradle Will Rock, a musical by Marc
Blitzstein.
Elmer Rice
was placed in charge of the Federal Theatre Project in New York. In
1936 alone, the FTP employed 5,385 people in New York. Over a three
year period over 12 million people attended performances in the city.
One of Rice's innovations was the Living Newspaper (plays which
were essentially theatrical documentaries). The first of these plays,
Ethiopia,
which dealt with Mussolini's invasion of the country, was banned by
Harry Hopkins. The most successful of
the Living Newspapers was Arthur Arent's account of poverty in the
United States, One
Third of a Nation
(1938).
One play, It
Can't Happen Here,
by Sinclair Lewis, in 1936, was produced
simultaneously in 22 cities. The
Lost Colony (1937)
by Paul Green, was an outdoor historical
pageant that was performed in a Works Projects
Administration built theatre on Roanoake Island. As Harold
Clurman commented, the Federal Theatre Project
was: "The most truly experimental effort ever undertaken
in the American theatre."
During its four years existence the FTP launched or established the
careers of such artists as Orson Welles,
John Houseman, Will
Geer, Arthur Miller, Paul
Green, Marc
Blitzstein, Canada Lee
and Elmer Rice.
Some politicians objected to the idea of subsidized theatre. J.
Parnell Thomas, an influential Republican Party politician, also
objected to the radical message in some of these plays. Thomas claimed
that: "Practically every play presented under the auspices of
the Project is sheer propaganda for Communism or the New Deal."
As a result of these complaints, Congress abolished the project.
"I've
got the engine started, but..."
Herbert Johnson, Saturday Evening Post
(1935)
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