Melanie McGeary, Dr. Jacqueline Beatty, History, York College of Pennsylvania 2020
Archive: https://federaltheatreproject.omeka.net Website: https://federaltheatreproject.wordpress.com Background
The website: "The Federal Theatre Project" is hosted on Wordpress, and accompanied by an online archive using Omeka.net. The website focuses on the impacts of The Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal project that was established in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration. The project was created to bring jobs to unemployed theatrical professionals during the Great Depression, and also aimed to make theatre more accessible to the people of America. The project oversaw over 1,000 productions throughout its four- year lifespan. Shows varied from lighthearted children's shows to hard-hitting political dramas known as "The Living Newspapers." For a while, the productions was massively successful. Critics and audiences loved what Federal Theatre was providing. However, despite positive responses, the Federal Theatre Project was defunded in 1939 after accusations were made regarding leftist/communistic commentary in various productions.'The Federal Theatre Project, under the direction of Hallie Flanagan, played a large role in establishing the careers of many theatrical greats including Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, and Orson Welles. Federal Theatre was recognized for bringing theatre beyond the walls of elite entertainment into more accessible environments across the country. Purpose
After the semester was redirected online, the HIS399 class was challenged with creating an online website and archive using various research/digital creativity tactics we'd learned throughout the semester. Having done research on this topic for various classes in the past, this seemed like a good opportunity to dive deeper into research, and share what I've learned with others. This particular website/ archive duo was a digital public history venture created to share the impacts of the Federal Theatre Project on a larger and more accessible scale in comparison to something like a textbook or seminar class. In addition to this, it was created to show that Federal Theatre helped move theatre away from an elite and expensive form of entertainment. In addition to this, the Federal Theatre Project also strengthened theatre’s involvement in social/political movements at the time. The project’s “Living Newspaper” division was dedicated to producing works that integrated legitimate social and political issues happening in the country at the time. More information about this division can be found at https://federaltheatreproject.omeka.net/ exhibits/show/livingnewspaper Methodology I was able to utilize the Library of Congress Virtual Database for a majority of my archival research. The Library of Congress has an online collection dedicated exclusively to the Federal Theatre Project, and it contained thousands of photographs, newspaper reviews, posters, costume manuscripts, and script excerpts to sift through. Beyond that, because the Federal Theatre Project is a moderately niche topic, I dove as deeply as I could into the various databases and search engines like Google Scholar to find what I could about the various productions. However, sometimes all I could find was something like a New York Times article, of a college’s theatre page describing their own revamped production of a Federal Theatre classic. It was immensely challenging, but educational nonetheless. I knew going into this that people who stumbled across the page would either know a lot or nothing, so I wanted to make the website accessible to both. I was able to do that by connecting the website and archive to give people open access to look specifically at what interested them rather than guiding them through a pathway. Results I had done research on the Federal Theatre Project for multiple classes in the past, and I chose this topic so I could dive a little deeper than what I’d previously seen. Through this research, I was able to apply new creative concepts that I’d learned this semester (photoshop, Omeka, Time Mapper, etc.) to a topic that I was passionate about, and now I’m able to share it with the public. As I was researching, I found that the Federal Theatre Projects was truly one of the most ambitious theatrical projects of American history. While the primary goal was to bring jobs to unemployed professionals, another goal was to make theatre openly accessible. In the end, the advisors wanted Federal Theatre to leave a legacy that could thrive even after the project was concluded. It’s heartbreaking to see that the execution wasn’t as sustainable as previously anticipated, but it’s nice to see that even now, almost 90 years after the project’s original inception, the methods and ideologies of the Federal Theatre Project still hold true in some places around the United States. I’m hoping that others can see the importance of that as well. Acknowledgments
I owe a lot to the Library of Congress, really. I was able to find a majority of my archival material there without any sort of hitch or block in the road. I also want to acknowledge Dr. Beatty for being so accommodating and kind throughout the semester. She made the class very interesting and fun to work through. I was able to learn new research and design tactics that I will most certainly utilize throughout the rest of my academic career. I also appreciate being able to dive deeper into a topic that I was truly passionate about that not a lot of people are aware of. References
“Dr. Faustus (New York) (Orson Welles): Photographic Negative,” The Federal Theatre Project, accessed May 30, 2020, https://federaltheatreproject.omeka.net/admin/items/show/22.
“Power (New York): Poster,” The Federal Theatre Project, accessed May 30, 2020, https:// federaltheatreproject.omeka.net/admin/items/show/6.
“Macbeth (New York): Production Photo,” The Federal Theatre Project, accessed May 30, 2020, https:// federaltheatreproject.omeka.net/admin/items/show/8.
“It Can't Happen Here (Columbia): Poster,” The Federal Theatre Project, accessed May 30, 2020, https://federaltheatreproject.omeka.net/admin/items/show/15.
“Power (New York): Photographic Negative "Power #18",” The Federal Theatre Project, accessed May 30, 2020, https://federaltheatreproject.omeka.net/admin/items/show/19.