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The WPA Theatre Project-conceived as a relief measure, a work program, and an artistic experiment-enjoyed a brief but lively existence. With skill and sensitivity Mrs. Mathews explores its turbulent history from its ambiguous origins in 1935 to its tragic demise in 1939. The book recreate: the atmosphere of the era, and conveys a vivid sense of the Joys, frustrations, and personal sacrifices undergone by those dedicated few who recognized the need for an American People's Theatre.. Mrs. Mathews also provides a detailed account of the Congressional hearings which occasioned the disbanding of the. Project, and a fascinating portrait of Hallie Flanagan, the Projects colorful National Director. Originally published in 1967. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Accompanying DVD contains the chapters: Who killed the Federal Theatre? -- Innovations: a selection of interviews -- Art and politics: a selection of interviews -- Selection of Federal Theatre posters -- Selection of Federal Theatre photographs.
This 2003 book provides a detailed examination of the operations of the US Federal Theatre Project in the decade of the 1930s.
This book presents a comparative study of the history, performances and politics of the FTP by drawing and exposing further links between American modernism and its European counterparts.
The subject of Swortzell's book is a selection of plays created by the Children's Theatre units of the Federal Theatre Project. . . . Most of the six plays in Swortzell's anthology resonate with political messages integral to the post-Depression, post-World War I era. . . . Though some of the scripts, like Chorpenning's A Letter to Santa Clause, which is an indictment of war, and Yasha Frank's Pinocchio, which celebrates the rewards of a virtuous life, hammer away at theme to the point of becoming tedious, the plays written and performed during this brief heydey in the history of children's theatre reveal just how far the genre could move beyond the narrow focus and prescribed subjects which once defined its boundaries. Children's Literature Association Quarterly The plays published here were originally commissioned by the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) of the Works Progress Administration. Editor Lowell Swortzell has selected six plays representative of the reportory of the children's theatre productions of the FTP and reprinted them in their entirety. The plays, whether original scripts or adaptations of fairy tales and folklore, emphasized both educational and entertainment value. The plays are preceded by an extensive introduction detailing the history and goals of the children's theatre unit. The plays are: Horse Play by Dorothy Hailparn, a comedy from the Negro Unit of New York City; Flight by Oscar Saul and Louis Lantz, a documentary play in the style of the Living Newspaper; The Boiled Eggs by Rught Fenisong, a comedy form the Marionette Unit of New York City; The Revolt of the Beavers by Oscar Saul and Louis Lantz, a controversial fable from Broadway; A Letter to Santa Claus by Charlotte Chorpenning, an anti-war Christmas pantomine produced as a gift to the children of Chicago; and Pinocchio, a popular adaptation first produced in Los Angeles, then transferred to Broadway.
In the 1930s, the Work Progress Administration funded a massive Federal Theatre Project in America's major urban centres, presenting hundreds of productions, some of the most popular and memorable of which were produced in the highly controversial and avant garde 'Negro Units'. This experiment in government-supported culture brought to the forefront one of the central problems in American democratic culture - the representation of racial difference. Those in the profession quickly discovered inescapable ideological responsibilities attending any sort of show, whether apparently entertaining or political in nature. Exploring the liberal idealism of the thirties and the critical debates in black journals over the role of an African American theatre, Fraden also looks at the obstacles facing black playwrights, audiences, and actors in a changing milieu.
Between 1935 and 1939, the United States government paid out-of-work artists to write, act, and stage theatre as part of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a New Deal job relief program. In segregated "Negro Units" set up under the FTP, African American artists took on theatre work usually reserved for whites, staged black versions of "white" classics, and developed radical new dramas. In this fresh history of the FTP Negro Units, Kate Dossett examines what she calls the black performance community—a broad network of actors, dramatists, audiences, critics, and community activists—who made and remade black theatre manuscripts for the Negro Units and other theatre companies from New York to Seattle. Tracing how African American playwrights and troupes developed these manuscripts and how they were then contested, revised, and reinterpreted, Dossett argues that these texts constitute an archive of black agency, and understanding their history allows us to consider black dramas on their own terms. The cultural and intellectual labor of black theatre artists was at the heart of radical politics in 1930s America, and their work became an important battleground in a turbulent decade.