During the 1930s the Work Progress Administration funded the Federal Theater Project to sustain unemployed theatrical workers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other major urban centers, employing over 12,000 people and presenting countless productions. Some of the most popular and memorable of these works, such as the "voodoo" Macbeth and the "swing" Mikado, were produced in the so-called Negro Units, whose story is narrated in this book. Particular focus is given to problems of representation in a community and in an era trying to define what was African American, what was Negro, what was American, what was peculiar, and what was universal in the arts.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Fraden's active yet balanced voice makes the work approachable for the casual reader yet her meticulous exploration of cultural and political frictions inside and beyond the project represents a significant contribution to the study of Negro FT making it required reading for any serious scholar of not only the Federal Theatre Project but of the American theatre scene of the 1930's." Theatre Studies, Vol. 41
"This major work is complex and scholarly. A critical and historical analysis of the purpose, plays, audiences and actors of the Federal Theatre of 1935-39, Blueprints for a Black Federal Theatre is compelling....useful to theatre students (and others) because of the rich and copious notes." Glenda E. Gill, Theatre Survey
"Rena Fraden's 'Blueprint for a Black Federal Theatre' will also be a useful textbook for teaching African American theatre history. Fraden has distinguished her work from that of her major forerunners....'Blueprint' substantially enhance[s] our understanding of African American theatre and will enliven classroom discussions with the cogent and timely arguments [it] present[s]." Joni jones, Drama Review
"This major work is complex and scholarly. A critical and historical analysis of the purpose, plays, audiences and actors of the Federal Theatre of 1935-39, Blueprints for a Black Federal Theatre is compelling....useful to theatre students (and others) because of the rich and copious notes." Glenda E. Gill, Theatre Survey
"Rena Fraden's 'Blueprint for a Black Federal Theatre' will also be a useful textbook for teaching African American theatre history. Fraden has distinguished her work from that of her major forerunners....'Blueprint' substantially enhance[s] our understanding of African American theatre and will enliven classroom discussions with the cogent and timely arguments [it] present[s]." Joni jones, Drama Review
Book Description
The Work Progress Administration funded the Federal Theater Project to sustain unemployed theatrical workers in major urban centers. Some of the most memorable works were produced by the so-called Negro Units, whose story is narrated in this book.
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Most historians of the New Deal pose the same questions. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
big white fog, negro unit, noncommercial theatres, negro theatre, race theatre, play bureau, federal theatre, ethnic theatre, black critics, black playwrights, black theatre, white reviewers, negro actors, black drama, downtown whites, black director, audience surveys, living newspaper, white critics, black actors, black arts movement Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, African American, Los Angeles, Swing Mikado, Little Chillun, Emperor Jones, Arts Projects, South Side, United States, Lafayette Theatre, Paul Green, Theophilus Lewis, Alain Locke, Carlton Moss, Chicago Negro, Hallie Flanagan, Theodore Ward, Civil War, Green Pastures, Leonard De Paur, Liberty Deferred, Lincoln Theatre, Philip Barber, Charles Johnson, Harlem Negro New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Most historians of the New Deal pose the same questions. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
big white fog, negro unit, noncommercial theatres, negro theatre, race theatre, play bureau, federal theatre, ethnic theatre, black critics, black playwrights, black theatre, white reviewers, negro actors, black drama, downtown whites, black director, audience surveys, living newspaper, white critics, black actors, black arts movement Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, African American, Los Angeles, Swing Mikado, Little Chillun, Emperor Jones, Arts Projects, South Side, United States, Lafayette Theatre, Paul Green, Theophilus Lewis, Alain Locke, Carlton Moss, Chicago Negro, Hallie Flanagan, Theodore Ward, Civil War, Green Pastures, Leonard De Paur, Liberty Deferred, Lincoln Theatre, Philip Barber, Charles Johnson, Harlem Negro New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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40
books
cite this book:
See all 40 books citing this book
- The New Negro : Voices of the Harlem Renaissance by Alain Locke on 11 pages
- Harlem Renaissance by Nathan Irvin Huggins on 5 pages
- The African Americans (The Peoples of Pennsylvania Pamphlets) by Leroy Hopkins on 4 pages
- Criticism and Social Change by Frank Lentricchia on 4 pages
- American Hunger by Richard Wright on page 113, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
- Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture by Michael Anderegg in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Radio Active: Advertising and Consumer Activism, 1935-1947 by Kathy M. Newman in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Federal Theatre Project: A Case Study (Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama) by Barry B. Witham in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Langston Hughes: Folk Dramatist in the Protest Tradition, 1921-1943 (Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies: Contemporary Black Poets) by Joseph McLaren on page 15, and Back Matter
- Dos Passos and the Ideology of the Feminine (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) by Janet Galligani Casey in Back Matter
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