One Third of a Nation is a Living Newspaper play produced by the Federal Theatre Project in 1938. Written by Arthur Arent from research by the editorial staff of the Federal Theatre Project, it focused on the problem of housing in the United States and the growth of slums in New York City. The play was produced in New York and in nine additional cities, where it was adapted to specific community conditions. It was adapted as a feature film in 1939 and revived on the New York stage in 2011.
I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished...The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
One-Third of a Nation opens with a scene depicting a burning tenement in New York. The Voice of the Living Newspaper pairs with a character named Angus Buttonkooper, "the little man", and they both try to explain why decent housing is not available in New York. They conclude that corruption in the New York housing department is a major obstacle.
With the expansion of the city, a rich landlord is depicted sitting on a patch of grass, which portrays his property. As the population of the city expands, more and more people try and fit on that patch of grass. They resort to petty fighting and theft. Slowly but steadily, the Buttonkooper gets politicized as he wanders through 100 years of corruption and troubles; he sees the polarity between wealthy landlords and their impoverished tenants.
The piece ends with the delineation of the failure of the Housing Act of 1937, a $565 million project that only managed to alleviate about two percent of New York's slums. The Little Man and his wife vow to continue activism against the government until "everyone in America has a decent place to live in." [2]
One-Third of a Nation employs the allegorical concept of the little man. He is an impoverished person with little access to resources, always suppressed by landlords. The little man emerges as the protagonist, central to the Living Newspaper's aim at providing social commentary. Their plays also featured direct communication with the audience.
Written by Arthur Arent from research done by staff at the Federal Theatre Project, the senators' speeches in the play were taken from the Congressional Record . [3] One-Third of a Nation was first presented January 17 – October 22, 1938, at the Adelphi Theatre in New York. [4] One of the greatest successes of the New York City Federal Theatre Project, it was seen by more than 217,000 people in that city alone. [5] : 217
Designed by Howard Bay, the New York production filled the stage with a huge cross-section of a slum; real fires burned on the stage. [5] : 217
Adapted to match specific local housing conditions, the play was presented in nine additional cities [5] : 216, 390 including Cincinnati, Detroit, Hartford, Philadelphia, Portland, Washington DC, and Seattle. [5] : 216 One-Third of a Nation was presented daily at the Golden Gate International Exposition [5] : 291–292 and was still running in San Francisco when the Federal Theatre Project ended July 1, 1939. [5] : 216
"The press throughout the country considered One-Third of a Nation the most important contribution to date," wrote Federal Theatre Project national director Hallie Flanagan. [5] : 216
The first success of the New Orleans Federal Theatre, One-Third of a Nation was praised by The Times-Picayune for being "as timely and shrewdly staged theatrical entertainment as has been witnessed in New Orleans for many a season." The New Orleans Item called it "a dramatic bombshell ... a startled initiation into the roaring effectiveness of a new stage medium." [5] : 86–87
The Cincinnati Post called it "one of those rare things in the theatre: a play which makes an important subject tremendously exciting." [5] : 216 The Oregon Journal described it as "topical, rapidly paced, and brilliantly experimental." [5] : 301 In Detroit the play was held over for four weeks. "The worst thing about One-Third of a Nation is that it is true," wrote The Detroit News, which praised its "unforgettable vividness and compelling power...thrilling beyond description...a rare experience in the theatre — not to be missed by anyone." [5] : 217
While withholding praise during the nine-week run of One-Third of a Nation in Seattle, The Seattle Times reported "Seldom has any play so caught the public fancy." [5] : 217 A Philadelphia reviewer criticized the number of people in the cast — missing the point that employment was the reason the Federal Theatre existed — but still granted that the production "frequently smacks you between the eyes with its dramatic force. If you're interested in stagecraft or housing, it's an experiment worth your money." [5] : 217
"One-Third of a Nation, like any powerful play on a controversial subject, made enemies as well as friends," wrote Flanagan. "Enemies made by the living newspaper were, I believe, powerful enemies, instrumental in the final closing of the project." [5] : 220–221
One-Third of a Nation was one of the Federal Theatre Project productions criticized by conservatives in Congress. [5] : 217 Funding for the Federal Theatre Project was terminated in 1939 after strong Congressional objections to the left-wing political tone of less than 10 percent of its productions. [5] : 361–363
One-Third of a Nation was adapted for a 1939 film released by Paramount Pictures, produced and directed by Dudley Murphy. The cast includes Sylvia Sidney, Leif Erickson, Myron McCormick, Hiram Sherman, and 15-year-old Sidney Lumet in his only screen performance as an actor. It was the first Federal Theatre Project play to be sold to the film industry. [6] The $5,000 fee was given to the Guild Committee for Federal Writers' Publications, a non-profit organization that included Heywood Broun, Franklin P. Adams, Lewis Mumford, and others. The play was published by Random House in 1938. [5] : 218
One-Third of a Nation was revived in 2011 by the Metropolitan Playhouse in New York City. "Part history lesson, part protest, the play uses a series of sketches to dramatize ghastly housing conditions and to condemn corruption, speculators and slumlords," wrote The New York Times. "Much of the script remains fresh, with a wry, invisible narrator and characters who step out of scenes to comment on the action, which traverses more than 200 years." [7] Backstage reported that "A nimble cast of 11 (the original had 25) delivers the show's still-relevant message — that everyone deserves a decent and affordable place to live — with force and conviction." [8]
The Works Progress Administration was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on May 6, 1935, by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal.
A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inhabited by impoverished people. Although slums are usually located in urban areas, in some countries they can be located in suburban areas where housing quality is low and living conditions are poor. While slums differ in size and other characteristics, most lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, law enforcement, and other basic services. Slum residences vary from shanty houses to professionally built dwellings which, because of poor-quality construction or lack of basic maintenance, have deteriorated.
Federal Project Number One, also referred to as Federal One, is the collective name for a group of projects under the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program in the United States. Of the $4.88 billion allocated by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, $27 million was approved for the employment of artists, musicians, actors and writers under the WPA's Federal Project Number One. In its prime, Federal Project Number One employed up to 40,000 writers, musicians, artists and actors because, as Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins put it, "Hell, they’ve got to eat, too". This project had two main principles: 1) that in time of need the artist, no less than the manual worker, is entitled to employment as an artist at the public expense and 2) that the arts, no less than business, agriculture, and labor, are and should be the immediate concern of the ideal commonwealth.
The Federal Theatre Project was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States. It was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ artists, writers, directors, and theater workers. National director Hallie Flanagan shaped the FTP into a federation of regional theaters that created relevant art, encouraged experimentation in new forms and techniques, and made it possible for millions of Americans to see live theatre for the first time. Although The Federal Theatre project consumed only 0.5% of the allocated budget from the WPA and was widely considered a commercial and critical success, the project became a source of heated political contention. Congress responded to the project's racial integration and accusations of Communist infiltration and cancelled its funding effective June 30, 1939. One month before the project's end, drama critic Brooks Atkinson summarized: "Although the Federal Theatre is far from perfect, it has kept an average of ten thousand people employed on work that has helped to lift the dead weight from the lives of millions of Americans. It has been the best friend the theatre as an institution has ever had in this country."
Cradle Will Rock is a 1999 American historical drama film written, produced and directed by Tim Robbins. The story fictionalizes the true events that surrounded the development of the 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein; it adapts history to create an account of the original production, bringing in other stories of the time to produce a social commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930s, particularly amidst the struggles of the labor movement at the time and the corresponding appeal of socialism and communism among many intellectuals, artists and working-class people in the same period.
The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 play in music by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles and produced by John Houseman. Set in Steeltown, U.S.A., the Brechtian allegory of corruption and corporate greed includes a panoply of social figures. It follows the efforts of Larry Foreman to unionize the town's workers and combat the powerful industrialist Mr. Mister, who controls the town's factory, press, church, and social organization. The piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities, although Blitzstein included popular song styles of the time.
Hallie Flanagan Davis was an American theatrical producer and director, playwright, and author, best known as director of the Federal Theatre Project, a part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Living Newspaper is a theatrical form presenting factual information on current events to a popular audience. Historically, Living Newspapers have also urged social action and reacted against naturalistic and realistic theatrical conventions in favor of the more direct, experimental techniques of agitprop theatre, including the extensive use of multimedia. Living Newspapers originated in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution,
Rose McClendon was a leading African-American Broadway actress of the 1920s. A founder of the Negro People's Theatre, she guided the creation of the Federal Theatre Project's African American theatre units nationwide and briefly co-directed the New York Negro Theater Unit.
Documentary theatre is theatre that uses pre-existing documentary material as source material for stories about real events and people, frequently without altering the text in performance. The genre typically includes or is referred to as verbatim theatre, investigative theatre, theatre of fact, theatre of witness, autobiographical theatre, and ethnodrama.
Norman Nathan Lloyd was an American actor, producer, director, and centenarian with a career in entertainment spanning nearly a century. He worked in every major facet of the industry, including theatre, radio, television, and film, with a career that started in 1923. Lloyd's final film, Trainwreck, was released in 2015, after he turned 100. Lloyd remains the longest-lived male actor from Classic Hollywood.
The Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) is an agency that provides affordable housing for low-income families in Atlanta. Today, the AHA is the largest housing agency in Georgia and one of the largest in the United States, serving approximately 50,000 people.
Big White Fog is a play by American playwright Theodore Ward and his first major work. The play follows the fictional Mason family across three generations between 1922 and 1933. Half of the family supports a return to Africa and Garveyism, while the other half of the family seeks the American Dream.
The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) is a grassroots, non-profit community organization. CES works in the greater Los Angeles area to influence policy makers to improve the lives of low and moderate income people.
Revolt of the Beavers was a children's play put on by the Federal Theater Project by Oscar Saul and Louis Lantz. It was originally directed by Peter Hyun, but he was replaced when his actors refused to go Broadway with him, insisting on a name director. One critic described the play as "Marxism à la Mother Goose". The show ran at the Adelphi Theatre in New York City from May 20, 1937, to June 19 of that year. Jules Dassin and John Randolph were among the play's cast. The play involved a worker beaver named Oakleaf, who leads a revolt against "The Chief" Beaver who was exploiting the workers. Though the play was a fantasy fable intended for children, it was attacked by the HUAC for promoting Communist ideals.
The Voodoo Macbeth is a common nickname for the Federal Theatre Project's 1936 New York production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Orson Welles adapted and directed the production, moved the play's setting from Scotland to a fictional Caribbean island, recruited an entirely Black cast, and earned the nickname for his production from the Haitian vodou that fulfilled the role of Scottish witchcraft. A box office sensation, the production is regarded as a landmark theatrical event for several reasons: its innovative interpretation of the play, its success in promoting African-American theatre, and its role in securing the reputation of its 20-year-old director.
The Playhouse Theatre is a theater located at 4045 University Way NE on The Ave in the University District, Seattle, Washington. It was converted from a tile warehouse in 1930 by Burton and Florence James, who set up the Seattle Repertory Playhouse with multi-ethnic performers and audiences.
Can You Hear Their Voices? A Play of Our Time is a 1931 play by Hallie Flanagan and her former student Margaret Ellen Clifford, based on the short story "Can You Make Out Their Voices" by Whittaker Chambers. The play premiered at Vassar College on May 2, 1931, and ran most recently Off Broadway June 3–27, 2010. Broadway World notes that it anticipated John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty, predating them by eight years and by four years respectively.
Triple-A Plowed Under is a Living Newspaper play produced by the Federal Theatre Project in 1936. Written by Arthur Arent from research by the editorial staff of the Federal Theatre Project and directed by Joseph Losey, it focused on the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 and the plight of Dust Bowl farmers. The production premiered on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on March 14, 1936 and ran until May 2, 1936.
Slum clearance in the United States has been used as an urban renewal strategy to regenerate derelict or run-down districts, often to be replaced with alternative developments or new housing. Early calls were made during the 19th century, although mass slum clearance did not occur until after World War II with the introduction of the Housing Act of 1949 which offered federal subsidies towards redevelopments. The scheme ended in 1974 having driven over 2,000 projects with costs in excess of $50 billion.