WPA FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT

national theatre project sponsored and funded by the U.S. government as part of the Works Projects Administration (WPA). The purpose was to create jobs for unemployed theatrical people in the Great Depression years of 193539. Ten thousand professionals were employed in all facets of the theatre. About 1,000 productions were mounted in four years in 40 states, often presented free to the public. These productions included classical and modern drama, children's plays, puppet shows, musical comedies, and documentary theatre known as Living Newspaper (q.v.). Other projects included producing plays by young, unknown American playwrights, establishing black American theatre, and presenting radio broadcasts of dramatic works. Following a series of controversial investigations by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and Subcommittee on Appropriations regarding the Federal Theatre's outspoken leftist commentary on social and economic issues, the Federal Theatre Project was terminated in 1939 by congressional action.