The Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art Out of Desperate Times

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Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Jun 23, 2009 - History - 336 pages

"Spotlight[s] one of the most compelling periods of American theater...Quinn's well-written narrative is both fascinating and frightening."—Library Journal (starred review)

In a desperate era, FDR and his advisers had to furiously improvise to get millions of unemployed people back to work. For writers, actors, and artists, they created the Federal Theater Project. A platform for cutting-edge drama, the program defied segregation, spotlighting social injustice and ultimately leading to a political struggle that would shape American arts for decades to come.

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Where's the rest of this book?

Selected pages

Contents

Prologue
On the Train
Harry
Hallie
Great Plans for Millions
Ethiopia
TripleA Plowed Under
The CCC Murder Mystery Chapter 7 The Simple and the Difficult
The Cradle Will Rock
Id Rather Be Right Chapter 12 Chants of the Prairies
The West
Past Is Present
Enter HUAC
Marlowes Ghost
An Act of Congress
Epilogue Four Febrile Years

Do You Voodoo?
It Cant Happen Here
After the Flood Chapter 10 Under a Powerful Star
Notes
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art ...
Susan Quinn
Limited preview - 2008
Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out ...
Susan Quinn
Limited preview - 2011
Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out ...
Susan Quinn
Limited preview - 2021
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Common terms and phrases

actors Administration American Angeles Arena artists arts projects asked audience Baker bill boys Broadway Brooks Atkinson called camp Canada Lee cast Chicago committee Communist Congress Congressman Cradle Will Rock critics crowd curtain Deal Democratic director dramatic Eleanor Roosevelt Ellen Woodward Elmer Rice Ethiopia farmers FDR’s FDRL February Federal Theatre Project going Grinnell Hallie Flanagan Hallie wrote Hallie’s Harlem Harry Hopkins Hearst Hopkins’s House Ibid January John Houseman later letter Living Newspaper looking Macbeth Marc Blitzstein March million Mister Mister Model Tenement Murder Negro unit never O’Neill opening night Orson performed play playwright political president production rehearsal relief reported Run-Through scene Seattle Senate September Sinclair Lewis Sing stage Starnes Stevedore Theatre’s thing thousand told turned union Vassar vaudeville voodoo wanted Washington weeks What’s Woodrum Workers Alliance writing wrote Phil York

About the author (2009)

Susan Quinn is the author of two award-winning biographies, of Marie Curie and Karen H orney, as well as Human Trials, which recounts the emotion-laden process of developing a drug for a difficult disease. S he lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art Out of Desperate Times
AuthorSusan Quinn
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherBloomsbury Publishing USA, 2009
ISBN0802717586, 9780802717580
Length336 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / United States / 20th Century
  
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