Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal

Much has been written about the Federal Theater Project (FTP), a part of the United States government's Works Progress Administration that from 1935 to 1939 paid out-of-work writers, actors, directors, and crews to stage theatrical productions. The segregated "Negro Units" within the FTP, however, have received less attention. In Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal , Kate Dossett offers a rich archival history of a number of Negro Unit productions, setting aside the question of white leadership within the Negro Units and highlighting the political complexity of Black-authored works produced by the FTP. As political opposition to Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal increased, its programs actually gained acceptance among many African American writers and activists for their potential to ensure at least a minimum standard of living for all Americans. For that reason, among others, the Negro Units were embraced by a member of playwrights as an opportunity to give form to a variety of political content. Through close study of manuscripts from local productions of Black-authored (or coauthored) plays, Dossett weaves an engaging narrative of the ways authors and performers (though her emphasis is clearly on the authors) used the theater to envision "radical paths to the future" (p.39).