Federal Theatre

Federal Theatre

Federal Theatre (1935–39), branch of the Work Projects Administration designed to provide employment for actors, directors, writers, and scene designers. As well as providing a nationwide audience with inexpensive, high-quality productions, it gave impetus to experimental theaters, such as the Group Theatre, the Mercury Theatre of Orson Welles, the topical “Living Newspaper” (dramatizations of news stories), and the music-dramas of Marc Blitzstein.

Bibliography

See study by J. D. Mathews (1967, repr. 1971).

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References in periodicals archive ?
At New Federal Theatre, we are currently in development with Baraka's play The Most Dangerous Man in America, scheduled for November 2014, to be directed by Paul Carter Harrison.
A further misconception: Regional theatre history--but let's call it resident theatre--doesn't begin with the Guthrie, ft goes back more than a century--to the Provincetown Playhouse, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Cleveland Playhouse, Circle in the Square, Arena Stage of Washington (George Grizzard's alma mater), the Federal Theatre Project from coast to coast; and, especially, to Margo Jones's Theatre '47 in Dallas, she being the most far-seeing pioneer of them all.
Though Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre will mount just two of B.ullins works--1 staging of In the Wine Time (through Nov.
From the tasting Newspapers of the Federal Theatre Project in the '30s, to the Free Southern Theater bringing "art and social awareness" to the Deep South in the '60s, to the long-haul commitment of such activist troupes as the venerable Bread and Puppet Theater, the San Francisco Mime "I rouge and Cornerstone 'Theater Company, theatre artists have long hct.
However, it is disappointing to see that the author has failed to mention the Living Newspaper productions by the Federal Theatre Project from 1935 to 1939, where side projections were extensively used.
When the financial crisis hit, Lindsay and fellow ensemble members drew inspiration from the WPA and the Federal Theatre Project.
"It was possibly the largest so-called theatre company that ever functioned in the U.S.," says Walter Zvonchenko, a theatre specialist in the music division of the Library of Congress, who curated the Library's exhibition "Coast to Coast: Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939," on display there through July 16, and showing separately May 7 through February of 2012 at Los Angeles's Walt Disney Concert Hall.
And just like that, Drink Water had a three-week New York showcase at the New Federal Theatre. My career as a playwright was launched.
government ceases funding for the Federal Theatre Project, essentially ending an initiative that generated employment for countless theatre workers.
She discusses theatre in the US during the 20th century and the formation of the Theatre Guild; the Federal Theatre Project; the hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, including those investigating Hollywood and Broadway; performers who worked in theatre while blacklisted; the role of unions in dealing with the situation; and the operations of the Actors' Equity Association.
Osborne, "Hidden in Plain Sight: Recovering the Federal Theatre Projects Caravan Theatre" (109-24); Jerry Dickey, "African American Waiters and Cakewalk Contests in Florida East Coast Resorts of the Gilded Age" (125-38).

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