Black Theatre Gallery

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Federal Theatre Project through the Works Progress Administration, as a way to employ creatives who had no income otherwise. Many playwrights, actors, set designers, songwriters, musicians, hairdressers, painters, writers, dancers. costume designers, makeup artists, seamstresses, carpenters and photographers got to be part of a very popular movement. This gave minorities opportunities that were previously unheard of. Office people got to work through the FTP as well. It ran from 1934 to 1939, when it became a victim of McCarthyism (at least one play was pro communist) and was ended. While it was not perfect (seasoned actors beat out many new actors for the leads) and while some of the plays did little to advance the country, future talents like Orson Welles, John Houseman, Burgess Meredith, Ingrid Bergman, Arthur Duncan, Sidney Poitier, Mantan Moreland and others got their big break with the FTP.