Depression Makes Good Theatre

The story of the Federal Theatre Project is quite the epic tale. It was a product of

the Great Depression, born under the Works Progress Administration, part of the New

Deal, to create jobs for unemployed theatre artists. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP)

created jobs for actors, designers, stagehands, and directors. It provided theatrical

productions across the United States for people at low or no cost to the theatergoer, many

of who could no longer afford to attend theatre due to the economic climate of the time. It

also created theatre in areas that had not actually had theatre. It provided jobs for people

of all colors. It started careers of people who would go down as some of the most lauded

names in theatrical and film history. It even created new forms of theatre.

It seems a prudent idea to start with a bit of history to put the era and events

therein into context. Largely due to the aftereffects of World War I, the 1920s was a

decade “at once wildly creative, liberating, desperate, and reckless.” (Axelrod 239)

Americans purchased stock in record numbers. This would be a good thing, except for the

fact that most of them bought large amounts of stock on margin, putting down as little as

ten cents per dollar of stock. They hoped that the stock prices would rise quickly and

drastically in order for them to pay off the substantial loans they undertook in order to

make the stock purchases. (238)

To make matters worse, while the buying power of the public declined, the

production numbers in many factories rose. Companies continued to make much more of

their products than people were buying. Since their items weren’t selling, they started laying people off. People without jobs tend to purchase less than people with jobs, and so

the market base shrank. Oddly, stock prices continued to rise as more people purchased

stocks, predominantly on margin. (Axelrod 238) This was a bad thing.

As summer became fall in 1929, the prices in the stock market began to seesaw

uncontrollably. I imagine the unsteadiness of the market terrified a great many people,

especially the large number who had purchased their stocks on margin and had yet to

earn the purchase prices from them to pay their substantial loans. On October 24, a

selling spree began. On October 29, commonly referred to as Black Tuesday, the market

took