Un-American Theatre:

From the Federal Theatre Project to Shakespeare in the Park.

 

“The miracle of the Federal Theatre lies precisely in this—that from the drab and painful relief project there sprang the liveliest, most innovative and most original theatre of its era. This was no accident. ‘To those who were fortunate enough to be part of the Federal Theatre it was a unique and thrilling experience. Added to the satisfaction of accomplishing an urgent and essential social task in a time of national crisis, it enjoyed the special exhilaration that is generated on those rare and blessed occasions when the theatre is suddenly swept into the mainstream of its time.’”

                                         John Houseman, Foreword to Free, Adult, Uncensored  

 

“Historians strive constantly to improve our collective understanding of the past through a complex process of critical dialogue—with each other, with the wider public, and with the historical record—in which we explore former lives and worlds in search of answers to the most compelling questions of our own time and place.”

                                         AHA Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct

 

Course Description:

 

On December 6, 1938 Hallie Flanagan, the National Director of the Federal Theatre Project of the Works Progress Administration came to testify before the Dies’ Committee, a forerunner to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC),  in Washington, D.C. The Committee wanted to prove that there were communist elements in the Project and that its funding should not be renewed. Mrs. Flanagan was there to defend the Project and in the course of defending it she also gave the Committee insight into her own feelings and attitudes about theatre. When asked, “Do you believe that the theater is a weapon?” she replied, “I believe that the theater is a great educational force. I think it is an entertainment. I think it is an excitement. I think it may be all things to all men.” Six months and twenty-four days later, the Federal Theatre was gone and with it the dream of a national theatre, a dream that is constantly renewed in the hearts and minds of theatre artists through each new generation.

 

This was not the first time that the theatre and its artists had been accused of un-American activity, and it wouldn’t be the last. This course is an overview of roughly 25 years when the course of the arts did not run smoothly, and the fate of the artist often had no relation to talent or experience. We will briefly look back at theatre prior to the Federal Theatre as we meet the creators of such theatre stalwarts as The Theatre Guild and the Group Theatre. But this course really begins on August 27, 1935 (Week #3) when the idea that an artist should be able to receive relief from the ravages of the Depression just as much as any other skilled laborer becomes a reality. Students will “join” the Federal Theatre Project and through readings, films, and discussion find their place in the history of a most unique time in American theatre history. This section of the course (Weeks #3-#7) will include a reading of Revolt of the Beavers,one of the Project’s most discussed productions, and will end with the death by Congress of the Project on June 30, 1939.

 

In the ensuing weeks we will look at the investigations of the entertainment industry by HUAC, how Actors’ Equity Association and other performing arts unions responded to the blacklist, and what happened when HUAC finally decided to come to New York and investigate Broadway. Part of the impetus for these investigations was HUAC’s anger at the fact that artists, unable to work in film and television, were working on Broadway AND using their own names. We will look at this phenomenon and those affected by it. No study of this period on Broadway would be complete without looking at the original production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, first produced in 1953, at the height of the blacklist hysteria. The course will end in June of 1958 (Week #12) when Joseph Papirofsky, Shakespeare in the Park’s own founding director Joe Papp, appears during one of the last HUAC forays into the entertainment industry.