| Description |
1 online resource (ix, 197 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Introduction : children's theatre of a people's theatre -- Federal Theatre Project dreams : raising up an educated audience for a permanent American national theatre -- "We should have called it Rumplestiltskin" : a labor fairy tale gets real in The Revolt of the Beavers -- "I looked him right square in the eye" : being African American in The Story of Little Black Sambo -- "Shadows your thoughts are marching" : anti-fascism and home-front patriotism in Federal Theatre's A Letter to Santa Claus and Hollywood's The Little Princess -- Wishing on a star : Pinocchio's journey from the Federal stage to Disney's world -- Conclusion : death of a dream |
| Summary |
This book traces how the tumultuous politics of the late 1930s shaped the stories and staging of federally funded plays for children. Indeed, children’s theater was central to the Federal Theatre Project’s vision of building a national theater. The author argues that representations of the child and childhood in the FTP children’s plays stage the hopes and anxieties of a nation destabilized by both economic collapse and technological advances. A declining economy and the first stagnant birthrate in three centuries yoked the national economy to the individual family. Profound disagreements over appropriate models of education and parenting, as well as over issues of ethnicity and class, constituted fundamental arguments over democratic values and social norms. The author locates these plays within the immediate context of the production materials in the FTP archives, as well as within the broader culture of the Great Depression, drawing on disparate primary materials - from parenting magazines to strike literature to political journals - and referencing a range of popular events - from the Joe Louis/Max Schmeling fights to Hollywood movies. As the focus of Depression-era adult anxieties and hopes, and as the embodiment of vigor, dynamism, and growth, children carried symbolic value both as the future of America and as the America of the future. This book examines representative plays’ connections to other media, culture, and politics to situate their singular trajectories in the social history of the Federal Theatre Project and Popular Front culture |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-187) and index |
| Notes |
English |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
Federal Theatre Project (U.S.)
|
| SUBJECT |
Federal Theatre Project (U.S.) fast |
| Subject |
Children's plays, American -- History and criticism
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American drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- General.
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American drama
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Children's plays, American
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2012032475 |
| ISBN |
9780814270110 |
|
0814270115 |
|
081429314X |
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9780814293140 |
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