The Demise of the 1930s Federal Theatre Project Foreshadows Current Events

James Shapiro’s The Playbook is an account of a culture war over the place of theater in American democracy.

By
Eve Glasberg
July 03, 2024

From 1935 to 1939, the Federal Theatre Project staged over a thousand productions in 29 states that were seen by 30 million (or nearly one in four) Americans, two thirds of whom had never seen a play before. At its peak, the program employed more than 12,000 struggling artists, some of whom, like Orson Welles and Arthur Miller, would soon be famous, but most of whom were ordinary people eager to work again at their craft. The project resulted from a moment when the arts, no less than industry and agriculture, were thought to be vital to the health of the country, bringing Shakespeare to the public, alongside modern plays that confronted the pressing issues of the day—from slum housing and public health to racism and the rising threat of fascism. 

The Playbook by James Shapiro, Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature, takes readers through some of the project’s productions, including a groundbreaking Black production of Macbeth in Harlem, and an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s anti-fascist novel It Can’t Happen Here, which opened simultaneously in 18 cities, underscoring the Federal Theatre’s wide range and vitality.

But this once-thriving Works Progress Administration relief program did not survive, and has left little trace. The Federal Theatre was the first New Deal project to be attacked and halted on the grounds that it promoted un-American activity, sowing the seeds not only for the McCarthyism of the 1950s, but also for our own polarized times. 

Columbia News caught up with Shapiro to discuss the book, what he’s reading now and recommends, his summer plans, and his thoughts on retiring from teaching soon.

How did this book come about?

The Playbook is a sequel to my last book, Shakespeare in a Divided America, in its exploration of theater and politics. Theater and democracy were twin-born in ancient Greece, and I see them as mutually dependent. Right now, theater is hurting in America, and unsurprisingly, so is our democracy. The Playbook is also driven by my interest in some of the roots of our current culture wars, when the Right first turned on the arts in the late 1930s.

The Playbook by Columbia University Professor James Shapiro

What lessons from The Playbook can be applied to today's culture wars and our polarized society?

The playbook wielded by the Right in its war on progressive culture and the arts has a history that is well worth studying. Another sad lesson from the book—obvious to anyone who has lived through the recent turmoil at Columbia—is that when allies on the Left turn on each other, the only winners are those on the Right.  

What books have you read lately that you would recommend, and why?

Long Island, by my colleague Colm Tóibín, is a wonderful sequel to his earlier novel, Brooklyn. I’d also recommend The Alternatives, a superbly crafted novel about four sisters with PhDs, by another Irish writer, Caoilinn Hughes. I loved a haunting novel that I read last year when I was a judge for the Booker Prize—Pearl, by Siân Hughes, which was longlisted for the Booker. It’s out in the U.S. in late July, and it riffs on the mysterious medieval poem, Pearl.

What's next on your reading list?

After reading 161 novels last year while judging the Booker, I’m happily turning back to nonfiction as I research my next book, for Yale University Press’s “Black Lives” series: Othello’s American Life. Right now, I’m immersed in two superb, recently published studies of race in America’s past: Sean Kelley’s American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865, and Daniel Thorp’s In the True Blue’s Wake: Slavery and Freedom Among the Families of Smithfield Plantation.

Summer plans?

A book tour, which will take me to some fun places, including London, Dublin, Washington D.C., and Sun Valley.

What are you teaching in the fall semester?

I’m looking forward to teaching—as I have since the late 1980s—Shakespeare I. The students are always brilliant, and mostly seniors (55 of them, as the course is capped, for I read all their work and don’t use TAs). It’s always a thrilling class to teach. I’ll also be teaching an undergraduate seminar in American Studies, as I have for the past few years, on Shakespeare in America. I’ll be retiring after teaching in the fall of 2025, so my last semesters working with Columbia students will be especially meaningful.