Voices from the Federal Theatre [Hardcover]

Bonnie Nelson Schwartz (Author), Robert Brustein (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2003

    The Federal Theatre Project, a 1930s relief project of the Roosevelt administration, brought more theater to more people in every corner of America that at any time in U.S. history. The Project had units in every region of the country, including groundbreaking African American troupes, and staged productions from daring dramas like The Voodoo Macbeth, Waiting for Lefty, and The Cradle Will Rock to musicals, vaudeville, and puppet shows. It was canceled in a firestorm of controversy that gave birth to the damning question: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?"
    This book documents that vibrant, colorful, politically explosive time, which gave rise to bitter debates about the role of government in American art and culture. It includes interviews with such Federal Theatre actors, playwrights, directors, designers, producers, and dancers as Arthur Miller, Studs Terkel, Jules Dassin, Katherine Dunham, Rosetta Lenoire, John Houseman, and many others.
    Voices from the Federal Theatre is a tie-in with the public televison special Who Killed the Federal Theatre? hosted by Judd Hirsch and coproduced by Schwartz with the Educational Film Center.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Schwartz, an accomplished Broadway stage, film and television producer, examines the Federal Theatre, a Depression relief experiment of the Roosevelt administration, and its widespread influence on American arts and culture. Opening with an informative foreword by Robert Brustein, founding director of the Yale Repertory and American Repertory Theatres, the book follows the project's 1935 origins under the directorship of Hallie Flanagan with a series of dramas, musicals and vaudeville, to its 1939 demise, a result of the work of Rep. Martin Dies's congressional House Un-American Activities Committee. Schwartz shares interviews with former Federal Theatre actors, playwrights, directors, designers, producers, variety artists and dancers to present a distilled look at a creative peak in American culture, when the project employed over 13,000 jobless creative people in the arts, producing a continual series of innovative plays and other entertainment throughout the country. The book's strength emerges in these interviews, where Federal Theatre alumni such as actor Norman Lloyd, writer Studs Terkel, director Jules Dassin, producer John Houseman and playwrights Arthur Miller and Woodie King Jr. speak candidly of the cultural climate of that time. The theater project, though supposedly free of political influence, confronted a number of social issues in its productions and opened new horizons for black performers during the Jim Crow era. Although some of the interviews lack substance and depth by not addressing any of the shortcomings that opened the door for the theater's extinction, this is a fine survey of an important, though brief, project in American history.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

Voices from the Federal Theatre ties in with the Fall 2003 PBS special Who Killed the Federal Theatre? An Investigation hosted by Judd Hirsch and coproduced by Schwartz with the Educational Film Center. Program DVD included with cloth edition.

Foreword by Robert Brustein.

Program

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (October 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299183203
• ISBN-13: 978-0299183202
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,978,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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