Today’s Find: Alabama Yesterdays blog post “The Federal Theatre Project in Alabama” tinyurl.com/y3da9ekb #alabama #alabamayesterdays #federaltheatreproject

@livingnewdeal.bsky.social
#GeorgeBernardShaw #AndoclesandtheLIon #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #FederalArtProject #WPAPosters #RichardHalls #graphicdesign #graphicdesigners #illustration #WorksProgressAdministration #GreatDepression

#OTD in 1886:
unveiling and dedication of the #StatueOfLiberty
Liberty in peril 2
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#WPA Federal Theatre presents *It Can't Happen Here* Color silkscreen by #RichardHalls (1906-1976). #FederalArtProject [1936 or 1937]
#graphicdesign #FederalTheatreProject

controversial a play to open, and Republicans charged that the date for the show's mass opening had been selected to help the Democrats in an election year.
#WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPA #theatre #TheatreThursday #SinclairLewis #ItCantHappenHere ‘

#OTD in 1936 - nationwide
(no comment necessary)
Poster for the stage adaptation of #SinclairLewis' novel *It Can't Happen Here*, October 27, 1936, at the Lafayette Theater a Detroit Federal Theater production
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#FederalArtProject #Poster Division #ItCantHappenHere #WPA #FederalTheatreProject

- The horse (author Edwin Denby, rear; stage manager Carol King, front) before the poster announcing the #FederalTheatreProject production of *Horse Eats Hat* at Maxine Elliott Theatre.
- #ArleneFrancis, #JosephCotten and #OrsonWelles at a rehearsal of *Horse Eats Hat*
#WPA

#OTD in 1936 a premiere:
🧵👇
‘#WPA #FederalTheatreProject 891 - presents HORSE EATS HAT - Maxine Elliott's Theatre’ Color silkscreen. W.P.A. Federal Art Project
1936
👉ALT
@livingnewdeal.bsky.social
#FederalArtProject #graphicart #OrsonWelles #MercuryTheatre #JosephCotten #ArleneFrancis

WPA Fed Theatre Project. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. Portable Theatre. 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

WPA Fed Theatre Project in NY. Theatre Workers. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.

WPA Fed Theatre Project in NY. Theatre Workers. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.

WPA Fed Theatre Project in NY. Theatre Workers. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.

At work for the #WPA #FederalTheatreProject

Federal Theatre - Marionette Theatre presents "RUR" Remo Bufano director. Color silkscreen by Charles Verschuuren. [New York, Federal Art Project, between 1936 and 1939]. ‘R.U.R. is a 1920 science fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. R.U.R. stands for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots). The English phrase "Rossum's Universal Robots" has been used as a subtitle. It premiered on 25 January 1921 and introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole. R.U.R. quickly became influential after its publication] By 1923, it had been translated into thirty languages.’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R. 25.8.20

Federal Theatre Project presents “The Emperor Jones” by Eugene O'Neill with Ralph Chesse's Marionettes. Columbia [Theatre]. Color silkscreen print. California, Federal Art Project, 1937.

Marionette Theatre performance for children. WPA Fed Theatre Project in NY. Marionette Theatre Unit. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.

Marionette Theatre performance for children. WPA Fed Theatre Project in NY. Marionette Theatre Unit. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. 1935. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.

#Marionette Theatre from the #WPA #FederalTheatreProject
The 1920 science fiction play by #KarelČapek (R.U.R. for Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti [Rossum's Universal Robots]) had introduced the word ‘#robot’ to the English language.

Federal Dance Theatre presents Salut au monde adapted from a poem of that name by Walt Whitman. Color silkscreen by Richard Halls (b. 1906). [New York City,] Federal Art Project, [1936 or 1937]. dancers

WPA Fed Theatre Project in NY, Dance Theater 'Young Tramps.' Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. 1935. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum

#WPA #FederalTheatreProject - #DanceTheatre

image from Harry Hopkins, *Inventory: An Appraisal of Results of the Works Progress Administration* (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office 1938) pdf at https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/

The over 8.5 million #WPA workers in 8 years of operation throughout the country & U.S. territories:
16. brought living drama to millions of people via the #FederalTheatreProject with a total of 1,501 productions in 40 cities of 22 States - 0.8% of total program.
#theatre

#OTD in 1936
*Art & Mrs. Bottle* [Playwright Benn W. Levy] #WPA Federal Theatre Playhouse, Tulane & S. Miro [Los Angeles] April 26 to May 7 [1936]. Color silkscreen. [California: #FederalArtproject]. Ca. 1936.
#FederalTheatreProject #LosAngeles #BennLevy #painter #artist

#BurtLancaster with fellow performer on parallel bars, between 1935 and 1939.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus #BurtLancaster
Theatre Project Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.

WPA Circus pole act like those performed by Lancaster and Cravat.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus

Aerialist Burt Lancaster and his WPA circus partner, Nick Cravat.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus #BurtLancaster

Among those ‘sawdust stars’ was aerialist Burt Lancaster.
Here below, #BurtLancaster in the movie *Trapeze* (left), and in his WPA Circus days.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus #BurtLancaster

Tightrope Walker. WPA Federal Theatre Project Circus in NY. 1935.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus

Rope dancer, WPA Circus, 1935, Fed Theatre Project Circus in New York, NY -- from the New Deal Network
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus

WPA Federal Theater Project in NY, Circus. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project. 1935.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus

Circus. Works Progress Administration, Federal Theatre Project in New York. 1935. #GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus

Children at WPA festival in the Sheep Meadow, Central Park, May 2, 1936.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus #blackandwhitephotography

Purchasing tickets to the Federal Theatre Project’s Circus in New York City
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus #blackandwhitephotography

‘The World’s Greatest Circus / Under the Big Tent. - 200 Sawdust Stars - 40 Clowns... - Daring Death-defying Feats - Trained Dogs - 60 Acts 60 - 50 Piece Band’ 1936. Silkscreen poster, printed by the Poster Division, #WPA #FederalTheatreProject #WPAcircus Federal Theatre, New York City. Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. http://gugeo.blogspot.it/2013/11/the-wpa-circus-trapeze-burt-lancaster.html 20.2.20

In #APRIL 1935
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The #FederalTheatreProject of the #WPA kept the #circus alive in New York, funded by the April 1935 $4-billion appropriation for the work-relief programs: 375 'sawdust stars' thus employed, & millions of New Yorkers entertained, through 1939.
👉ALT
#TheNewDeal

#OTD in 1938
“Alison’s House”
By Susan Glaspell [1876-1948]
A Poetic Romance NOW!
Color silkscreen poster
Federal Theatre Project. 19 April 1938.
#MayanTheatre #LosAngeles #FederalTheatreProject #WPA #theatre #TheNewDeal #graphicdesign

#OTD in 1936
‘Negro group of WPA #FederalTheatreProject actors rehearse scenes in the production 'Brother Mose'. Works Progress Administration. Federal Theatre Project’ Newark, New Jersey. April 8, 1936.
#GreatDepression #TheNewDeal #blackandwhitephotography #WPA #BrotherMose

Halfway through The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War by James Shapiro. Best history and broadest view of the Federal Theatre Project that I’ve ever read. Recommend. #booksky #theater #theatre #federaltheatreproject