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DM - WPA 7/18/13 10:20 PM Page iii Defining Moments the WPA — putting America to Work Jeff Hill 155 W. Congress, Suite 200 Detroit, MI 48226 DM - WPA 7/18/13 10:20 PM Page v Table of Contents Preface . .ix How to Use This Book . .xiii Research Topics for Defining Moments: WPA—Putting America to Work . .xv NARRATIVE OVERVIEW Prologue . .3 Chapter One: A Nation Unemployed . .7 Chapter Two: The First New Deal Work Programs . .27 Chapter Three: Formation of the Works Progress Administration . .43 Chapter Four: WPA Construction Projects . .55 Chapter Five: The WPA Arts, Service, Women’s, and Youth Programs . .71 Chapter Six: The End of the WPA . .89 Chapter Seven: The Legacy of the WPA . .103 BIOGRAPHIES Mary McLeod Bethune (1887-1955) . .121 Educator, Civil Rights Leader, and Director of the NYA’s Office of Negro Affairs Martin Dies Jr. (1900-1972) . .125 Conservative Congressman and Chair of the House Un- American Activities Committee (HUAC) v DM - WPA 7/18/13 10:20 PM Page vi Defining Moments: The WPA—Putting America to Work Harry Hopkins (1890-1946) . .129 Director of the Works Progress Administration from 1935 to 1938 Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) . .133 Texas Director of the WPA’s National Youth Administration and President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 Mr. Mahoney (1883-?) . .137 Works Progress Administration Employee during the Great Depression Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) . .141 Painter and Member of the WPA Federal Art Project Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) . .145 President of the United States from 1933 to 1945 and Champion of the New Deal Orson Welles (1915-1985) . .150 Director and Actor in the WPA Federal Theatre Project Ellen S. Woodward (1887-1971) . .154 Director of the Women’s Division of the Works Progress Administration PRIMARY SOURCES Chronicling the Difficulties of Depression-Era Unemployment . .161 Walter Lippmann Urges a New Approach to Work Relief . .171 President Roosevelt Discusses the Works Progress Administration . .174 Residents of the Southern United States Recall the WPA . .179 Hallie Flanagan Describes Harry Hopkins’s Ideas about Work Relief . .183 The WPA Explains Its Mission . .187 A Young Artist Describes His Experiences with the WPA’s Federal Art Project . .197 An Actor in the Federal Theatre Project Recalls the Staging of The Cradle Will Rock . .201 vi DM - WPA 7/18/13 10:20 PM Page vii Table of Contents The FTP’s “Living Newspaper” Plays—Insightful Commentary or Government Propaganda? . .204 Herbert Hoover Condemns the Works Progress Administration . .208 President Roosevelt Discontinues the WPA . .213 Comparing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to the WPA . .215 Important People, Places, and Terms . .219 Chronology . .227 Sources for Further Study . .233 Bibliography . .235 Photo and Illustration Credits . .239 Index . .241 vii.

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Living Newspaper Program
Ursinus College's Theater Capstone Course presents Isolated Together: Stories from the COVID-19 Pandemic A Living Newspaper Radio Play Mission Statement We have created this piece to share different experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic in the hope of fostering understanding of varying perspectives and beginning a conversation about what we can and should do during these unprecedented times. Our Process For our original Capstone project, we wanted to focus on the effects of technology on young people in society today. We spent the first few weeks of the semester narrowing down our research and coming to a consensus on the ideas we wanted to include in our living newspaper. Before going on spring break, we were going to finish working on our scenes for each vignette, with the goal of finalizing our product for our return. When COVID-19 hit, everything changed and the college moved to remote learning before anyone returned from Spring Break. With all of this change, we came together to figure out the future of our original plans. When we met over a video call, we decided to change our topic to the coronavirus pandemic. Although we could no longer stage our living newspaper for a live audience, we decided to write and perform it as a radio play to share the perspectives of different groups of people, bringing us together in our isolation. What is a living newspaper? As a part of the New Deal initiative, on April 8th, 1935 the Roosevelt administration passed the Emergency Relief Appropriation act which funded the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
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The Living Newspaper in Philadelphia, 1938-1939
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HOME FRONT AS WARFRONT: AFRICAN AMERICAN WORLD WAR I DRAMA BY Copyright 2010 Anna Katherine Egging Submitted to the graduate degree program in English and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Chairperson, Iris Smith Fischer Committee Members:________________________________ Maryemma Graham ________________________________ Janet Sharistanian ________________________________ Henry Bial ________________________________ Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka Date Defended: ___27 August, 2010_______________ ii The Dissertation Committee for Anna Katherine Egging certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: HOME FRONT AS WARFRONT: AFRICAN AMERICAN WORLD WAR I DRAMA ________________________________ Chairperson, Iris Smith Fischer Date approved:____27 August 2010_______ iii Abstract This dissertation recovers little-known African American World War I plays that blur the boundary between the home front and warfront. I argue that with this focus, the plays wage their own war for African American citizenship rights, using language and performance to gain access to the “imagined” community of the nation. Yet plays from different time periods focus on diverse aspects of the Great War; these differences provide insight into how World War I was thought of and employed, and for what purposes, in African American communities during the interwar years. The project fills an important gap in African American drama, theatre, and war literature scholarship; no book-length analysis exists, yet scholarly conversations surrounding African Americans in the Great War are energetic. Despite scholars’ arguments that the war “gave birth” to the New Negro, the plays that dramatize the subject have drifted into obscurity. Thus, this project is overdue; the plays complete the historical picture of African American drama and provide a better understanding of the ways contemporary life in the United States is still haunted by World War I.
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On the Performance Front Internationalism and US Theatre
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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA the Role of United States Public Health Service in the Control of Syphilis During the Early 20Th Centu
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A Model for Folk Theatre The Carolina Playmakers by Cecelia Moore, Special Assistant to the Chancellor and University Historian University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2014 Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture Good evening. It is an honor to give the Coates Lecture on University History. In 2004, I was in the audience when Jim Leloudis delivered the inaugural Lecture, and I remember wondering if I would ever get to do something as cool as that. Thanks to the support of many people, including Jim — who was my doctoral advisor — I got my chance. And that anecdote tells you something about how nerdy historians generally are. Thank you to Bob Anthony for inviting me to speak. Throughout my graduate studies at NC State and here, I became well acquainted with the people of Wilson Library and I owe a great deal to their professional skills and unflagging enthusiasm. For those of you who do not regularly read academic books, you should know that their names appear in hundreds of acknowledgement sections of books across a range of subjects, and that they are known literally around the world for what they do. I also have to give credit to the people in the Department of Dramatic Art and PlayMakers Repertory, and to the Carolina Playmakers I met over the years; they made me want to learn more about this piece of American theatre. Even before I knew I would return to school to study history, I was the designated person at PlayMakers who "liked all that old stuff" and would listen to the stories of former Playmakers who dropped in.
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ABSTRACT a Director's Approach to Arthur Arent's One Third of a Nation
ABSTRACT A Director’s Approach to Arthur Arent’s One Third of a Nation. Adam Flores, M.F.A. Thesis Chairperson: Marion Castleberry, Ph.D. The Federal Theatre Project, under director Hallie Flanagan, had many projects throughout its short existence from 1935-1939; however, few were as innovative and impactful as the Living Newspaper. The most successful Living Newspaper was One Third of a Nation by Arthur Arent. This thesis examines the history of the Living Newspaper as a form of theatre, the production history of One Third of a Nation, the process of adapting the script, the application of directorial analysis to concept, and the collaborative process by which the production was staged at Baylor Theatre in November of 2014. A Director's Approach to Arthur Arent's One Third of a Nation by Adam Flores B.A. A Thesis Approved by the Department of Theatre Stan C. Denman, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee Marion D. Castleberry, Ph.D., Chairperson DeAnna M. Toten Beard, M.F.A., Ph.D. David J. Jortner, Ph.D. Paul E. Larson, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School May 2015 J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2015 by Adam Flores All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures vi Chapter One: The Federal Theatre Project, Living Newspaper, And The Play 1 Introduction 1 The Federal Theatre Project 1 Living Newspapers 11 One Third Of A Nation 18 Dramatic Form 19 Audience Reception 22 Original Set 23 Regional Productions 25 Propaganda 31 Opposition To The Show 34 The End Of The Living Newspaper 42 Contemporary Revival 44 Conclusion 46 Chapter Two: Analysis 49 Introduction 49 Synopsis 50 Idea And Theme 55 Given Circumstances 56 Style And Form 57 Foreign Influences 58 Adaptation 61 Ensemble 64 Little Man And Mrs.
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Manipulating the Stage A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Theater College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Amy L. Midthun November 2002 This thesis entitled Manipulating the Stage A Comparison of the Government-Sponsored Theaters of the United States and Nazi Germany By Amy L. Midthun Has been approved for The School of Theater And the College of Fine Arts by Ame Wilson Assistant Professor of Theater Raymond Tymas-Jones Dean, of the College of Fine Arts Midthun, Amy L. Thesis. November 2002. School of Theater. A Comparison of the Government-Sponsored Theaters of the United States and Nazi Germany (86 pp.) Director of Thesis: Ame Wilson This thesis is a study of two government-sponsored theaters, the Federal Theatre Project in the United States (1935-1939) and the national theater in Nazi Germany. By analyzing the regulation of the theater, the performances produced, and the goals of the government in each country, one can see that the Federal Theatre Project and the national theater in Germany produced more similarities than differences. The study begins with an overview of existing opinions from respected theater historians as well as through the words of individuals who worked in each of the theaters during the time period in question. This is followed by additional arguments of my own. The results are then compared to show where the two countries overlapped. My results show that the two different forms of government produced theater that was much the same, despite the differing philosophies of the United States and Nazi Germany at the time.
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The Federal Theatre Project: Analyzing Conflict Among Relief, Art, and Politics in 1930S America
The Federal Theatre Project: Analyzing Conflict among Relief, Art, and Politics in 1930s America Author: Matthew Power, Patapso High School, Baltimore County Public Schools Grade Level: Middle/High Duration of lesson: 1-2 periods Overview: The Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939), one of four arts projects created under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), embodied the possibilities and flaws of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s early response to the Great Depression. In addition to providing assistance to show people, the Federal Theatre Project sought to bring meaningful theater to the populace, while simultaneously altering and expanding the relationship between the government and the arts. Similar to other New Deal relief programs, attacks were waged on the Federal Theatre Project by opponents who questioned this growing role of government in the lives of individuals and the art it produced. In this lesson, students will examine numerous primary sources to learn about the accomplishments of the Federal Theatre Project. Students will evaluate the behavior of key decision-makers to determine the project’s ultimate effectiveness as a relief and arts program. Related National History Standards: Content Standards: Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945) Standard 2: How the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state Historical Thinking Standards: Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation D. Consider multiple perspectives. Standard 4: Historical Research Capabilities A. Formulate historical questions. C. Interrogate historical data. D. Identify the gaps in the available records, marshal contextual knowledge and perspectives of the time and place, and construct a sound historical interpretation.
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It Can't Happen Here
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 11-12-2017 Precarious Democracy: "It Can't Happen Here" as the Federal Theatre's Site of Mass Resistance Macy Donyce Jones Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Theatre History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Jones, Macy Donyce, "Precarious Democracy: "It Can't Happen Here" as the Federal Theatre's Site of Mass Resistance" (2017). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 4165. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/4165 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. PRECARIOUS DEMOCRACY: IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE AS THE FEDERAL THEATRE’S SITE OF MASS RESISTANCE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The School of Theatre by Macy Donyce Jones B.A., Arkansas Tech University, 2003 M.A., Louisiana Tech University, 2005 December 2017 Acknowledgements There are so many people who have helped me make this dissertation a reality. Their contributions, both material and emotional, have been invaluable and too numerous to give a full account. I am forever grateful for the friendship, advice and support of the people who have helped me navigate this project.
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