Furious improvisation
Subtitle: how the WPA and a cast of thousands made high art out of desperate times
By: Susan Quinn.
Publisher: Walker
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 325
ISBN-13: 9780802716989
Subjects: Federal Theatre Project (U.S.); United States. -- Work Projects Administration
Description: The Federal Theater Project managed to turn a WPA relief program into a platform for some of the most inventive and cutting-edge theater of its time. This daring experiment in government support of the arts electrified audiences with exciting, controversial productions. Its plays stirred up politicians by putting the spotlight on social injustice, and starred some of the greatest figures in twentieth-century American arts, including Orson Welles, John Houseman, and Sinclair Lewis. Susan Quinn brings to life the politics of this desperate era when FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, and chain-smoking idealist Harry Hopkins furiously improvised programs to get millions of hungry, unemployed people back to work. Quinn's compelling story of politics and idealism reaches a climax with the rise of Martin Dies and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which turned the FTP into the first victim of a Red scare that would roil the nation for the next twenty years.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: On the train; title: Harry; title: Hallie; title: Great plans for millions; title: Ethiopia; title: Entr'acte one: CCC murder mystery; title: Triple-a plowed under; title: The simple and the difficult; title: Do you voodoo?; title: Entre'acte; title: It can't happen here; title: Under a powerful star; title: The cradle will rock; title: Chants of the prairies; title: The west; title: Past is present; title: Enter HUAC; title: Marlowe's ghost; title: An act of Congress.