Voices from the Federal Theatre
By: Bonnie Nelson Schwartz and the Educational Film Center ; foreword by Robert Brustein.
Contributors: Educational Film Center (Annandale, Va.)
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Madison
Language: eng
Number of pages: 218
Subjects: Federal Theatre Project (U.S.)
Other titles: Who killed the Federal Theatre?
Description: 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.
Notes: Accompanying DVD: Who killed the Federal Theatre? / a production of the Educational Film Center and Bonnie Nelson Schwartz. c2002.
Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Hallie's comet : the Federal Theatre / by Robert Brustein; title: The actors. Perry Bruskin ; Jeff Corey ; Jules Dassin ; Rosetta LeNoire ; Norman Lloyd ; Alan Peters ; John Randolph ; Studs Terkel; title: The producers. John Houseman ; Woodie King, Jr. ; Robert Schnitzer; title: The writers. Arthur Miller; title: The variety artists. Bob Baker ; Katherine Dunham ; Virginia Wren; title: Other voices. Clinton Turner Davis ; Lincoln Diamant ; Richard Eyre.