The Federal Theatre Project was not as\nglamorous, or as long-lasting, as some of its other New Deal programs. However,\nduring the short four-year period that it existed, the FTP made waves. My historical\nquestion was: what impact did the Federal Theatre Project have on the culture\nof the United States?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even before the onset of the Great Depression, theatre was struggling. Movies had grown in popularity, and traditional theatre found itself more and more pushed to the side to make way for cinema. \u201cUnable to compete with the motion picture industry, actors, stagehands, technicians, musicians, and vaudeville performers found themselves displaced by technology even before the depression\u201d <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. Naturally, this forced theatre workers to look for employment elsewhere, and the onset of the Depression made this search all the more difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The president at the time, FDR, started the New Deal in an attempt to ease the unemployment throughout the country, and also revitalize the arts. Through this New Deal, many different projects sprang up to deal with the issue, and one of them was the Federal Theatre Project. Some of the other projects, such as the Federal Arts Project and the Federal Music Project, gained success and a positive reputation. The FMP especially. The president and first lady \u201csponsored a series of nine concerts\u2026 in the White House between 1934 and 1942\u201d <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. However, unlike the other projects, the Federal Theatre Project did not succeed as a project in the long run, and it is considered \u201cthe least successful of all the projects in this artistic\/political endeavor\u201d <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even thought the Federal Theatre Project was ultimately considered unsuccessful, the project still made an impact. It put theatre workers and actors to work again, and it produced many different plays and productions. One of the most notable productions of the FTP was the play Macbeth, which was altered to have a 19th<\/sup> century Haitian background, and an all-black cast. The play was very successful in drawing an audience, and it \u201cran for 10 sold-out weeks at the Lafayette\u201d <\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>. The success of the play encouraged an interest in more African American versions of classical tales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I chose to focus my final project on the\nFederal Theatre Project because the subject of theatre interested me. As a\nchild, I had always enjoyed being a part of my local school and church play\nproductions, and, later on, I developed an interest in musicals and opera. I\nwas lucky enough to see renditions of \u201cLes Miserables\u201d and \u201cPhantom of the\nOpera\u201d in person in Washington DC, and I was awed by them. Since then, I have\nalways had an interest in theatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For my exhibit, my first skill page is a\ncouple of image annotations. The images are photos taken at the outside of theatres\nin which the \u201cVoodoo Macbeth\u201d was shown. They depict the large crowds and\nenthusiasm of the people at the play. The second skill page is a timeline of\nthe Federal Theatre Project, and it lists the major events of the FTP. The\nthird skill page is a storymap that illustrates a few of the major cities that\nthe popular \u201cVoodoo Macbeth\u201d toured. These three skill pages help to illustrate\nthe impact that the FTP had through visual means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The history of the 1930\u2019s is interesting, and many different things happen within that decade. It was a time of great change. I\u2019ve found that the digital humanities is a useful tool for studying history, as it allows for a more in-depth and personal view of peoples\u2019 lives through time. There is value in that, and I intend to look for more digital humanities projects when I do historical research again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exhibit: http:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/cnd\/exhibits\/show\/the-ftp<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Federal Theatre Project was not as glamorous, or as long-lasting, as some of its other New Deal programs. However, during the short four-year period that it existed, the FTP made waves. My historical question was: what impact did the Federal Theatre Project have on the culture of the United States? Even before the onset … Continue reading “Final Project”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-final"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2764,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions\/2764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}