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"Propaganda For Democracy": The Vexed History Of The Federal Theatre Project, Karen E. Gellen
"Propaganda For Democracy": The Vexed History Of The Federal Theatre Project, Karen E. Gellen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
My thesis explores and analyzes the Federal Theater Project’s cultural and political impact during the Depression, as well as the contested legacy of this unique experiment in government-sponsored, broadly accessible cultural expression. Part of the New Deal’s Works Projects Administration, the FTP aimed to provide jobs for playwrights, actors, designers, stagehands, and other theater professionals on relief in the stark period from 1935 to 1939. But the project became a nationwide political and artistic flashpoint, spurring fierce debate over the leadership, politics and impact of this “people’s theater.” The FTP gave professional theater an unprecedented reach into working-class and black …