“One Third of a Nation” and the Federal Theater Project: Staging History in the Classroom

presented by EY Zipris, Museum of the City of New York

Session Overview

Participants will analyze sources to discover how the thoroughly researched plays both educated and entertained while focusing on political, social, and economic concerns of the 1930s.

In 1938 the Federal Theater Project presented the original Living Newspaper play One Third of a Nation.

Staged during the Great Depression, the production took its title from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second inaugural address and its subject from New York City’s housing crisis.

Session Agenda

1. Introduction to the Federal Theater Project

1. “…One Third of a Nation…” script review

1. Document analysis

1. Living Newspaper script write

1. Performances!

• Most famous and largest: WPA, 1935- 1943• Provide relief for the

unemployed• Construction and

improvement of public buildings, highways and parks

• Provide work for unemployed artists in four categories: music, art, theater, and writing

• Artistic endeavors: murals, public structures, and documentary photography

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“I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people... This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.” FDR, 1932

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• August 27, 1935 – June 30, 1939

• Over six million dollars set aside based on how many in the theater industry were thought to be unemployed.

• Hallie Flannigan became director in 1935. Consistently accused of communist and socialist agendas, especially through the political slant of Living Newspaper plays.

• Famous artists: Arthur Miller, Orson Welles, Elia Kazan, Arthur Arent.

“…they seek to dramatize a new struggle – the search of the average American today for knowledge about his country and his world; to dramatize his struggle to turn the great natural and economic forces of our time toward a better life for more people. ”

Hallie Flanagan Director, Federal Theater Project, 1935- 1939

“The Living Newspaper is a dramatization of a problem – composed in greater or lesser extent of many news events… the effect of these news events on the people to whom the problem is of great importance.”

Arthur Arent, One Third of a Nation.

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… Inspired by the play “… one third of a nation”…

… Mr. Eagle and Mr. Robbins originated a series of pictures showing present conditions in the Chelsea and East Side slum districts. The value of this work can further be gauged by the use being made of these photographs to build the movie sets for the film version of “one third of a nation” now in the process of production.”

From: photonotes, October 1938

Quick Read and Write

• Choose one of the four documents to read• Silently read your article or document• Review your document again highlighting

a provocative or informative sentence• In small groups, discuss your documents

noting a common theme• Share the sentences you underlined and

piece them together in a one minute script supporting your theme

• Perform!

Quick Tips

• Write legibly – you aren’t the only one reading the script.

• Decide who will stand where.• Practice once even if its just running

through the lines. • Decide if you will adlib or if you will stick

to the script. • Indulge your inner Angie. • Go big.