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Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project Were Part of a Grand Undertaking of the American Government, Introduced During the Difficult Times of Great Depression

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Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project Were Part of a Grand Undertaking of the American Government, Introduced During the Difficult Times of Great Depression AD AMERICAM Journal of American Studies Vol. 7, 2006 ISSN 1896-9461 ISBN 978-83-233-2248-1 NEGRO UNITS OF THE FEDERAL Kinga witek THEATRE PROJECT - A MILESTONE IN THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN THEATRE What is inuch more to the point is the shocking degrees to which Negroes in the past were not pennitted to be a visible part of the national culture. The New Deal began the process of change. W. Leuchtenburg INTRODUCTION Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project were part of a grand undertaking of the American government, introduced during the difficult times of Great Depression. In 1935, over eight million Americans did not have jobs; to reduce this extreme unem­ ployment, the government of F.D. Roosevelt introduced an Emergency Relief Appro­ priation Act. In May 1935, Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created and equipped generously with 5 billion dollars. Money was used to introduce the pro­ gram of public works and to fund aid for artists. For the first time in American his­ tory, government acted as an art patron. It was a significant novelty. In case of only four programs executed by WPA and described as Federal Project Number One, over 40, 000 artists found employment.1 Federal Theatre Project (part of the Federal Project Number One) was the biggest and the most ambitious of the state ventures, made to organize and produce theater events. It was created not only to give jobs for unemployed, but also to keep up American optimism by giving people a chance to celebrate national art. As Jules Dassin put it: “The Federal Theatre was a part of a movement in America to put people to work. Among the unemployed people, as well as mechanics and metal workers, were actors and artists. And this wonderful idea to put them to work in the cultural field was such a big moment for America - for education (... ) for culture - that we still mourn the loss. ”2 1 K. Michałek, Amerykańskie Stulecie. Historia Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki 1900- -2001, Warszawa 2004, s. 172. 2 J. Dassin, http: //www.wisc. edu/wisconsinpress/books/242.htm 92 KINGA WITEK Hallie Flanagan, a playwright and manager, was sworn in as a national director of the Project in August 1935. Her aim was to create places of work for actors but also to provide national services for Americans. She believed that theatre was more than a private enterprise, that most of all, it was for public good, which when sup­ ported and developed properly could become an important social and educational force. It was a beginning of the new type of theatre in America - theatre concerned with bitter reality, where plays were often laced with social commentary. FTP consisted of and sponsored different so-called units. Among them were e.g. Italian, Spanish, French and African-American (Negro) units. All artists, and Black especially, for the first time got new possibilities and opportunities of work. Thanks to the Project over 12,700 people working for theatre found employment (actors made up nearly 50% of them), each month nearly 1,000 shows were presented. Tickets for the performances were extremely cheap and actually over 78% of all people watched them for free and a lot of them were exposed to live theater for the first time. Generally, FTP produced over 1,200 plays and about 100 new playwrights started their careers.1 Announcing the beginnings of FTP and its aims, during the National Theatrical Conference in 1935, Harry Hopkins answered the question whether such theatre could be free from censorship saying: “I am asked whether a theater subsidized by the gov­ ernment can be kept free of censorship, and I say, yes, it is going to be kept free from censorship. What we want is a free, adult, uncensored theater.’ ’4* Despite this assur­ ance, six months later first problems with government censorship started. Slowly, Washington began to criticize Project, accusing it of procommunist tendencies and activities. In 1938, the budget of FTP was reduced about 20% and later in June 1939 Congress completely stopped funds which led to Project being shut all over the coun­ try. Official reasons were said to be economical. Nevertheless, H. Flanagan, who was questioned by the Special Committee on Un-American Propaganda Activities, stated that actually, the reasons were purely political, as the government began to be afraid of the potential message that might have been propagated thanks to art. Moreover, Federal Theatre was treated not as a cultural matter but as political issue. Accusations of procommunist tendencies led to the examinations of the FTP staff.5 After the ex­ aminations, FTP productions were described as communist propaganda. Historian Rena Fraden adds that one more thing contributed to the closing of the project - Negro Units: “The idea of autonomous Negro units, leading to a national Negro theatre or fully integrated American theatre, including whites and blacks equally, threatened status quo.” The protests of theatre workers in the country were of no help. After all, it was not only about supposed communist infiltration, but also about general idea believed in Congress that an average American could see no point in spending their taxes on supporting artists or encouraging the arts. It turned out that the federal funding for the arts was controversial, although the budget for the Project amounted to less than 1% of the WPA’s total allocation. 6 1 http: //www. wwcd. 0rg/p0licy/US/newdeal.html#WPA 1 H. Hopkins, http: //www. neh.gOv/news/humanities/2003-07/federaltheatre. html 5 http: //www. wwcd. 0rg/p0licy/US/newdeal.html#WPA 0 R. Fraden, Blueprints For A Black Federal Theatre 1935-1939, Cambridge University Press, New York, Cambridge 1996, p. 199. NEGRO UNITS OF THE FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT - A MILESTONE IN THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN... 93 Maybe it was unavoidable. Maybe the Project sponsored by the government couldn’t be completely free from censorship and artists who believed in these ideals had just been a bit naive. But although it didn’t last long, the Project certainly im­ proved life and the chances of careers for Black artists. NEGRO UNITS Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project were part of Hallie Flanagan’s hope for creating an exceptional American theatre; they were also used to awake cultural awareness among Whites and Blacks alike, and at the same time contributed to re­ vising old stereotypes present on American stages for so long. These units were created as a result of the Rose McClendon’s suggestion. All she wanted to achieve was to ensure the production of plays dealing with the subject of Black people’s lives and help the careers of talented Black artists. Her proposal was enthusiastically accepted and strongly supported by H. Flanagan and J. Houseman. By October 1936 seventeen units were established: three in the South, Birmingham, Durham, and Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the latter two teaching units; three units in the Midwest, a drama unit and an “all-colored” minstrel unit in Chicago, and a musical revue unit in Peoria; in New York City, drama, choral, youth, operetta, and mario­ nette units; units in Boston, New Jersey, and Connecticut; and on the West Coast, in Oakland, Los Angeles, and Seattle. By January 1939, there were ten units: the Hart­ ford unit with about 25 blacks were still putting on plays and making occasional tours around Connecticut; 40 people were still employed on the Boston Negro unit; in addition, Newark, Philadelphia, Raleigh, North Carolina, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco were still in operation. There were four projects in New York City alone: a unit at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, the Negro youth unit, African dance unit, and a vaudeville unit.7 FTP gave African American theatre professionals and amateurs absolutely new opportunities. Some for the first time gained technical training and joined theatre craft unions; writers could write plays that departed from minstrel stereotypes; and directors chose Shakespeare and Shaw for Negro units, allowing actors a chance to play parts very different from before. The FTP also helped foster an ongoing black theatre. Certainly a different set of people who had never been able to afford it or who did not live near the centers of culture were granted access to listen and look and sometimes even create because of the institutions of the New Deal Arts Projects. All this time two questions were present in philosophical debates: what the Blacks should be writing about? and who should write for them? Some claimed that authentic black art needed and even demanded the existence of separate institu­ tions. According to the others, African-American art should be a part of the main­ stream white institutions. This debate is still open today. There were five types of plays that were developed and performed by the Negro units: • Commercial plays - showed in popular theatres for the general public (“Swing Mikado,” “Voodoo Macbeth”). 7 Ibidem, p. 4. 94 KINGA WITEK • Folk plays - concerning life and customs of simple people (“All God’s Chillun Got Wings”). • Historic plays - based on the stories from the lives of famous people (“Go Down Moses” - about Harriet Tubman). • Social plays - concerning social problems in dramatic circumstances (“Big White Fog”). • Living Newspapers - a new dramatic form - a committed documentary that in­ formed the audience of the size, nature, and origin of a social problem, and then called for specific action to solve it.8 By its practices FTP became the pioneer in promoting the ethnic variety. Al­ though it was not able to erase completely the color issue, it showed less race dis­ crimination than any other of Roosevelt’s projects.
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