The New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939

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The playscripts, production notebooks, reviews, and photographs in The New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939, provide an in-depth look at all aspects of a theatrical production, providing a basis for several creative projects. Although this collection is not currently searchable, sixty-eight complete playscripts are available for interpretation and performance. Synopses of numerous other plays, as well as reviews and publicity materials, also are available in this collection.

Themes in Federal Theatre Project Productions

This collection contains 68 digitized Federal Theatre Project playscripts ranging from new pieces such as Andrew Barton’s The Disappointment to works by Gilbert & Sullivan and William Shakespeare.  The administrative documents in this collection include play synopses from the West region of the FTP. These descriptions are divided alphabetically ("A to H” “I to P” and “Q to Z”) and provide detailed information about the narratives and themes of each play. Examples include dramas such as the back-to-Africa tragedy Big White Fog, Strife, a “struggle between capital and labor . . . in the strike area of a mining town in Wales,” and comedies such as The Very Great Man, in which “a clever schemer and high pressure public relations expert, performs miracles with his clients because he knows the value of high power advertising.”

Big White Fog Poster. Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943

• What themes appear in the contemporary pieces?
• What types of social and political ideas appear in these pieces?
• How do these contemporary themes compare to themes found in revived classics?
• Are there differences in theme between comedy and tragedy?
• Which plays sound most interesting to you? Why?

Interpretations of Macbeth

Different productions of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth offer multiple interpretations of this classic play. The Los Angeles production notebook focuses on the power of the supernatural and includes a synopsis that claims, “Especially in this colored version of Macbeth, the hero appears to be a mere tool in the hands of a witch doctor and his sinister three sisters, who, with weird and sensuous jungle incantations, strip all pretense . . . off loyalties.”

Scene from the Boston Production of Macbeth.

The Boston production notebook, on the other hand, approaches the piece as a murder thriller. The director’s report emphasizes a simple production in which “[s]peed and excitement were the principal keynotes. . . . ” This approach was selected for the audiences of students studying the play: “My object was to send these children back to the classroom with a vivid picture of the play as a whole and perhaps enhance their interest in the study.” The Cincinnati production notebook features a "Director’s Report" that points out the influence of production limitations on the interpretation: “Realizing we did not have any exceptional Shakespearian actors . . . [I invested] . . . the performance with a novelty in staging and business that would not point up the individual performance too much.”

• What is the emphasis of each production?
• Are the interpretations of each director valid?
• Is there a difference between a general audience and an audience of students? Why or why not?
• How do the various interpretations relate to the goals of each director?
• How do these plays compare to contemporary interpretations of Shakespeare in film or on the stage?
• What makes a play (or any piece of art) open to interpretation?
• Are there general themes or ideas that should always be conveyed?
• How do personal ideas influence interpretations of someone else’s work? What else inspires and influences interpretations?
• Who in a production is responsible for these interpretations? How does this person work with the other members of the production to convey his or her ideas?

Create a Production

The production notebooks of Dr. Faustus, Macbeth, and Power provide detailed information regarding all aspects of a theatre production. The set and costume designs, blueprints, photographs, director’s notes, and playscripts can serve as the basis for creating a production. Begin by analyzing these items: What types of themes are emphasized in the director’s notes? Why might a director alter a scene? What is the relationship between a director and the production’s set, lighting, and costume designers? What is the relationship between a director and the production’s actors? Do costumes change as they move from early sketches to photographs of a finished production? How do limitations on production costs influence the final version? Your production can be anything from enacting a single scene to developing an entire play complete with a production notebook, advertisements, and newspaper reviews. These projects, however, should be designed for private use in light of copyright issues. What type of considerations should be addressed in your production? Who is your audience? What themes are you trying to convey? How will you convey them? What are your time and cost constraints? How many actors, designers, and directors are being used? Will actors memorize their lines or read from a script? What types of costumes and stage sets are available?

Costume Design from Boston's Dr. Faustus. Costume Design from Boston's Dr. Faustus.

Newspaper Reviews

Reviews of FTP plays provide an opportunity to examine how theatre critics assessed these productions and how these assessments were used for promotional purposes. Production notebooks contain excerpts and complete reviews such as the "Critic’s Opinion" page featuring a review of Dr. Faustus in the New Orleans production notebook: “So superior was the production and so ideally suited to the uses of the legitimate theatre is the playhouse that it appears rather to be regretted that this Faust will run only through Saturday.”

Quotes from publications such as The Herald Tribune and The New Yorker appear on the "Newspaper Criticisms" page of the New York production notebook for Dr. Faustus. A quote from the New York Evening Telegram proclaiming, “This has been a wonderful season to study the development of the Theatre and we are largely indebted to the Federal Theatre for it” follows on the "Remarks" page. The quote serves as an introduction to a publicity piece describing the delivery of “new life” to Dr. Faustus through “the original treatment of its brilliant director . . . and the light expert.” Assessments of other performances and their use in publicity materials are part of this collection’s administrative documents.

Review of New York Dr. Faustus.	What are the tone and focus of these reviews? What aspects of productions do the critics discuss? What do they say about them and why? How do theatre critics discuss the relationship between individual productions and the Federal Theatre Project? Do they make fair comparisons given that there are five different regions in the FTP?
How do quotes from critics add to advertisements for films and plays? Write your own review of a play or movie.

Persuasive Writing

As the national director of the Federal Theatre Project, Hallie Flanagan worked on behalf of the administration to promote its programs and ensure their success. The administrative documents in this collection contain speeches Flanagan made to her colleagues and supervisors. A review of these addresses provides insight into how Flanagan argued for the creation and continuation of government-supported theatre.

Flanagan first spoke to her regional directors in an October 1935 address at the McLean Mansion entitled, “Is This the Time and Place?” Before calling for the creation of resources to assist the nation’s unemployed theatre workers, Flanagan noted the irony of giving such a speech in the luxurious estate:

The hideousness of the chandelier in the great ballroom, the busts and statues in the court, the gold faucets on the gigantic bathtub, are only equaled by their excessive cost. In short, the McLean Mansion, like many similar edifices throughout America, is a monument to the period of American culture in which the value of a work of art was measured in terms of its cost and the distance from which it was imported.

In a February 8, 1939 address to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Patents, Flanagan framed the Federal Theatre Project in terms of world history: “Four centuries before Christ, Athens believed that plays were worth paying for out of public money; today France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Italy and practically all other civilized countries appropriate money for the theatre.”

• Why do you think Flanagan made these comparisons?
• How do these comparisons reflect upon the FTP?
• How might these examples help to elicit support for the FTP?
• How does Flanagan use these examples to establish a tone and direction for her speeches?