Federal Theater Project Essay

In 1811, the New York city planners began a massive building execution. In 1835, Mayor Cornelius Van Wyck invited people to Manhattan to “move up there and enjoy the clean air!” In the early nineteenth century, the Theatre District between 41st street and 53rd street, was mainly just farmland and land owned by families all over. Broadway holds over 40 theatres at the moment, but it really wasn’t until the 1920’s-1930’s that theatres’ started to be built down these streets. In the 1930s, Broadway experienced a major crisis mainly caused upon the invention of the films having sound.

Many veteran producers and writers, such as A .L. Erlanger, E. F. Albee, Frederick Proctor, and David Belasco, all died in the early 1930’s, and with them “the creators of Broadway as it existed were passing” (Talkin broadway). As new artists took their place, new shows and ideas about social issues began to take center stage, causing groups like Actor’s Equity to speak out and cause argument over public censorship. Commercial Theaters also didn’t want to produce controversial pieces, so many theater professionals ended up creating their own groups or companies so they could produce the pieces they wanted to. This also allowed them to gain more profit, since they didn’t lose money to a big company. Theater still provided “relief from the world,” but it was more acceptable to discuss what was going on in the world, and musicals were able to discuss even more that dramas “because the appeal was to a far wider spectrum of theater going public”(Musicals101).

attention to theater, whether the purpose is to distract or entertain. During the 1940s, theater was

Theatre is a collaboration of various forms of fine art which utilizes live performances presenting before the audience on a stage at a specific place within a scheduled time (Dugdale 10). The message is communicated through a combination of various channels like songs, speech gestures or dances. Stagecraft skills are combined with elements of art to make the performance more physical and near to real life experience. Theatre is categorized broadly into drama, musical theatre, comedy, tragedy and improvisation. Any form of these accepts integration of various production modes and collective reception to influence the artwork being presented. As a result of this cooperation of items in the theatre

The Union enjoyed overall success in the Western Theater in 1862, but the year also brought defeat and setbacks between the times of Grant’s River War and the Battle at Stones River during the Civil War. These events contradicted the Unions success with strategic embarrassments that demonstrated the Union’s youth in military strategy in handling two separate theaters and management of men and goods.

for white-collar workers: Music, Writers, and Theatre and Art. The four art projects spent less than 3/4 of 1 percent of the total WPA budget, but were blamed and accused for being un-democratic and inefficient. The FTP was “the most controversial and short-lived of the Works Progress Administration art projects.” (www.answers.com) With its first production in the year 1936, The Federal Theatre Project remained in existence until the year 1939. It employed nearly 10,000 people per year on average; up to 12,000 people at it’s highest. The Federal Theatre Project provided 1200 productions as a minimum of 850 main works and of 309 innovative plays (29 new musicals) to an audience estimated at 25 million people in 40 states. It also “employed actors, playwrights, directors, producers, composers, and technicians, including notables as Orson Welles, Arthur Miller, John Huston, E. G. Marshall, and John Houseman.” (Manning) The FTP gave many Americans their first opportunity to attend live theater performances. It sent companies on tour to smaller cities and also gave shows for younger audiences.

After the golden years known as, The Roaring Twenties,the U.S experienced the greatest economic crisis in human history known as the Great Depression.People struggled just to get by,actors especially .The Federal Theater Project (FTP), was a government funded program to help struggling performers find work.Though the idea of such a program was revolutionary,it failed, and ended a few years after its creation. The FTP ultimately didn’t establish what it set out to do.

Over the course of approximately one-hundred years there has been a discernible metamorphosis within the realm of African-American cinema. African-Americans have overcome the heavy weight of oppression in forms such as of politics, citizenship and most importantly equal human rights. One of the most evident forms that were withheld from African-Americans came in the structure of the performing arts; specifically film. The common population did not allow blacks to drink from the same water fountain let alone share the same television waves or stage. But over time the strength of the expectant black actors and actresses overwhelmed the majority force to stop blacks from appearing on film. For the longest time the performing arts were

During the midst of the Great Depression, Americans were struggling in a fight to live. Factories all around the country were shutting down, causing people to be jobless, even homeless, unable to provide for their families. But the Factories were not the only ones affected. The theatre industry struggled to live on just as much, causing any enjoyment in life to be rare; which brought brilliant idea to the table, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP). This would not only bring jobs to those who are jobless, but bring back a scarce source of life, enjoyment. An Ideal Government funded theatre program the provided “free, adult, uncensored theatre,” as stated by the secretary of commerce, Harry Hopkins. And for 4 years, the FTP was actively trying to provide what it promised, but had a tragic downfall.

arts theatre that had a Board of Directors more concerned about artistic values than how they would

On August 27, 1935, the Federal Theatre Project was formed, with Hallie Flanagan, a theatre professor at Vassar College, named as the director. With over 12,700 theatre professionals working under the program, The Federal Theatre Project reached over twenty-eight states across the nation (“The Federal Theatre Project”). While the project’s original intention was to give work for those involved in theatre, it also provided an

Broadway theater is a form of entertainment that has been around since the mid 1700s beginning with operas and skits, progressing to modern musicals that we still enjoy today. I How many of you, have made fun of Broadway musicals before? I know I have... but really, I the reason I did was

The early 1930s was home to one of the most devastating times in American history. Many Americans were unemployed, making little money, and struggled getting by everyday. One thing that brought people together were the theatrical arts. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) helped to bring jobs and entertainment to people during the Great Depression. The FTP did many things to bring theatrical works across the country, but the short span of four years questions its effectiveness.

     "The arts of the western world have been largely dominated by the artistic standards established by the Greeks of the classical period" (Spreloosel 86). It is from the Greek word theatron, meaning a place for sitting, that we get our word theater. According to James Butler, "The Greeks were the first people to erect special structures to bring audiences and theatrical performers together" (27). "The theaters were normally located near a populated area at the bottom of or cut out of a carefully selected, sloping hillside overlooking a seascape, a plain, or a city" (Butler 30). "They eventually with few exceptions consisted of three distinct parts: theatron

The theater that Cuthbert Burbage built for the Chamberlain's Men had a total capacity of between 2,000 and 3,000 spectators. Because there was no lighting, all performances at the Globe were conducted, weather permitting, during the day (probably most often in the mid-afternoon span between 2 P.M. and 5 P.M.). Because most of the Globe and all of its stage was open air, acoustics were poor and the actors were compelled by circumstances to shout their lines, stress their enunciation, and engage in exaggerated theatrical gestures. What would seem most striking to a modern (Broadway) theatergoer about the productions staged at the Globe is that they were completely devoid of background scenery. Although costumes