Staging the People Community and Identity in the Federal Theatre Project [Hardcover]

The Federal Theatre Project,?a New Deal plan to fund theatre and other live artistic performances during the Great Depression, had the?primary goal?of employing out-of-work artists, writers, and directors, with the secondary aim of entertaining poor families and creating relevant art. These case studies explore the ties between the Federal Theatre Project and regional communities throughout the United States.Introduction: The 'People's Theatre': Creating an Audience of Millions Danger, Disease and Despotism: Balancing on the Tightrope of Chicago Demythologizing American Ideology: Collisions of Past and Present in Boston 'The Great American Theatrical Desert': Federal Theatre in the South The Fading Frontier: Excavating the Portland Federal Theatre Project Theatre 'In the Wilderness': The Federal Theatre Project Tours America Epilogue: An American Audience for the 'People's Theatre'

Osborne's research into the life - and unfortunately, the death - of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) goes well beyond the project itself. She reveals the full scope of the cultural environment in which the grand experiment existed and shows the ways in which that environment contributed to the theater's successes and failures...It is difficult to avoid being swept along by her obvious enthusiasm for her subject. - New York Journal of Books In this fresh and objective study of the Federal Theatre Project, the messy, complex realities are every bit as compelling as the popular myths we grew up with. Osborne s allusion to that four-year chapter of American theatre history as turbulent and exhilarating applies also to the discoveries she makes and to the picture that emerges from her focus on the regional as the matrix for understanding what the project truly contributed toward the ideal of a national theatre. - Felicia Hardison Londr?, Curators Professor of Theatre, University of Missouri-Kansas City Osborne s research is meticulous and her writing is clear and graceful. But whalãn