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

by Susan Quinn

A vivid portrait of the turbulent 1930s and the Roosevelt administration as seen through the WPA's Federal Theater Project.
Under the direction of a five-foot redheaded firecracker, Hallie Flanagan, the Federal Theater Project managed to turn a WPA relief program into a platform for some of the most inventive and cutting-edge theater of its time. This daring experiment by the U.S. government in support of the arts electrified audiences with exciting, controversial productions. Plays like Voodoo Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock stirred up politicians by defying segregation and putting the spotlight on social injustice, and the FT P starred some of the greatest figures in twentieth-century American arts―including Orson Welles, John Houseman, and Sinclair Lewis. Susan Quinn brings to life the politics of this desperate era when FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the chain-smoking idealist Harry Hopkins furiously improvised programs to get millions of hungry, unemployed people back to work. Quinn's compelling story of politics and idealism reaches a dramatic climax with the rise of Martin Dies and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which turned the FTP into the first victim of a Red scare that would roil the nation for the next twenty years.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Art, Politics, American History, United States, Theatre

336 pages, Hardcover

First published July 8, 2008

About the author

Susan Quinn grew up in Chillicothe, Ohio, and graduated from Oberlin College. She began her writing career as a newspaper reporter on a suburban daily outside of Cleveland, following two years as an apprentice actor at the Cleveland Playhouse. In 1967, she published her first book under the name Susan Jacobs: a nonfiction account of the making of a Broadway play called On Stage (Alfred A. Knopf). In 1972, after moving to Boston, she became a regular contributor to an alternative Cambridge weekly, The Real Paper, then a contributor and staff writer on Boston Magazine. In 1979, she won the Penney-Missouri magazine award for an investigative article for Boston Magazine on dangerous cargo transported through the city, and the Golden Hammer Award from the National Association of Home Builders for an investigative article on home inspections. She has written articles for many publications, including the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly and Ms. Magazine.
In 1987, she published her first biography, A Mind of Her Own; The Life of Karen Horney (Simon and Schuster, Addison-Wesley and Perseus) for which she received the Boston Globe's Laurence L. Winship Award.

For her next book, Marie Curie: A Life, she was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation writing residency at Bellagio in Italy. A reviewer in Science magazine predicted that her book "is certain to be this generation's biography of Marie Curie.” Marie Curie was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was on the short list for the Fawcett Book Prize in England. It has been translated into eight languages, and was awarded the Elle Grand prix des lectrices in 1997.

In 2001, Quinn published Human Trials: Scientists, Investors and Patients in the Quest for a Cure. It was described as a “real-life thriller” by the New York Daily News. Human Trials was chosen by Library Journal as one of the best sci-tech books of 2001.

Susan Quinn has lectured all over the United States, and has spoken in France and Poland about her biography of Marie Curie. In 2000, the University of Wisconsin at Stout awarded her a Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Quinn has served as the Chair of PEN New England, a branch of the writers’ organization PEN International. She is an accomplished flutist, and continues to participate in chamber groups on a regular basis. Susan is married to a psychoanalyst, Daniel Jacobs and has two children and four grandchildren. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts just outside of Boston.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Sweet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've long been interested in Hallie Flanagan and what she accomplished with the Federal Theatre Project, and this book is a solid, breezy telling of just that. There are clear parallels between the opposition she faced and contemporary attempts by the right to undermine public financing of the arts. And Flanagan is a fascinating character, an inspired amateur who ended up accomplishing more than most so-called professionals. I recommend this strongly.

[J.D. Brayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every once in awhile you take a chance at the used bookstore and buy something you think might be mildly interesting. In this case Furious Improvisations far exceeded my expectations. The 1930's were absolutely pivotal in modern American History. The WPA was much embattled by Republicans as a waste of taxpayer money and considered, by the short-sighted, to be superfluous.
Reading this book by Susan Quinn will change any doubts that this Public Arts and Works project defined America's ability to persevere through hard times, and yes, even prosper.
The Arts, to many in Congress, has always been a convenient target. This book shows how dedicated Artists can make a difference against all odds. There was turmoil in the ranks- Communism was to those suffering most, a viable option, and vilified by political opponents to the extent of extreme censorship.
I highly recommend this book. It will open the reader's eyes about how important the struggle for artistic freedom is to our National soul.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

good fast read. learn about how Federal Theatre Project got started (feed starving artists), its successes (fairly significant in both spreading "the arts" to "the masses" with cheaper tickets at more places and integrated players and audiences) and its demise (rednecks get their way, they hated public funding of the arts and hated integration especially, and used fear of communism as the bludgeon that did away with fed funded arts june 1939) [funny, the rednecks didn't really say anything about hitler invading other countries or franco winning HIS war:] haha
soemthing else that's funny, canada, norway, sweden etc fund musicians and now that indie music scene has exploded.
usa funds big 3 auto makers and blackwater and our world turns to shit. haha

[Readersaurus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grabbed this book because I thought the work of the WPA might have some helpful lessons for our country now . . . Also, I have been in the Hallie Flanagan theater at one of the 5 colleges and now I know who it was named for!

"This is America, the richest country in the world. We can afford to pay for anything we want. And we want a decent life for all the people in this country." -- Harry Hopkins, on p. 16.

"We are going to make a country in which no one is left out."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt to France Perkins, on p. 82.

Well, I have learned a lot about the WPA, Federal Theatre, and the start of the House Un-American Committee!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly a topic built for me. A good abbreviated history of a frequently ignored tale in US history.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, we'll never see anything like the Federal Theater Project again, but enough of the book echoes into the present day to make it interesting; to wit: the culture wars, white supremacists in high office, and using the federal budget as a public policy tool.

Oh, this book was well-written, to boot.

[John Paul Gairhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And yet, for a brief time in our history, Americans had a vibrant national theatre almost by accident. What began as a relief project, without big names or one grand theatre, found a vast new audience, ready to laugh and cry and cheer and hiss and even, dangerously, to think.”

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Free, adult, uncensored theatre’

The dream. A must read for theatre folks of all stripes.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific account of the Federal Theatre Project, which was part of FDR's Work's Progress Administration. Along with the millions who were put to work building roads, bridges and dams or fighting forest fires and planting trees, the WPA also found employment for the thousands of actors/writers/musicians/stagehands who were struggling to get-by. Ms. Quinn masterfully captures the feverish four years of the Federal Theatre's existence. From its inception the FTP faced whithering fire from anti-New Deal ideologues yet somehow managed to produce innovative work. The pivot on which this period of our history turns is Hallie Flanangan, who as director of the FTP used every ounce of are vision, passion and conviction to fight the good fight. Orson Welles, John Housman, Sinclair Lewis and Richard Wright are among the cast of thousands who played a role in making the Federal Theatre work. But eventually the Federal Theatre met its demise by an Act of Congress. Parallals with today's current "Politics of Fear" can be drawn. Members of the Congress,the Press and Industry all used Fear as a bludgeon to beat down the FTP. Communism, Government Over-reach, Racial/Minority Equality, Morality, a well-informed Citizenry were all used as the "evil other" in their war against the New Deal in general and the Federal Theatre in particular - it made for an easy target. This was at a time when there was a Senatorial filibuster to prevent passage of an anit-lynching bill!. Ms. Quinn has delivered a wonderfully lucid portrayal of a small but volatile period in our history.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am happy to have stumbled across this book, though I can't recall how I did. I was completely ignorant of the Federal Theatre Project; didn't knwo such an inititative had ever existed. I found reading about it alterantely heartening and depressing. Reading about Hallie Flanagan and snippets of her correspondence and diary entries about the Federal theatre Project was great; a biography about her is definitely on my to-read list now. Also inspiring to learn about the quality and quantity of theatrical works the project produced - with participants like Orson Welles, Eugene O'Neill, and Richard Wright, the success of the project in reaching urban and rural communities across the country, and the success of the project in integrating American theater and producing African American playwrights. The depressing: it was relatively short-lived, quashed by segregationists and HUAC, and I'll bet I'm not the only one who didn't even know it had existed! Somehow knowing that fairly robust federal support of the arts did briefly exist in this country makes it more depressing that arts organizations now rely heavily on upstanding corporate patrons like Philip Morris.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.75 out of 5, if I'll be really picky. Fascinating subject matter -- it made me want to run right back to Studs Terkel's Hard Times for more context -- and as always, the Great Depression and the '30s in general sound more and more contemporary the more I read about them. Quinn has a good narrative flow going, and I was rooting for Hallie Flanagan, her protagonist (essentially), all the way. There were a few moments early on, though, where I have to fault Quinn's line editor, who completely went out to lunch on basic "do not repeat information in the same paragraph" missteps. The end also felt abrupt, though I suppose that mirrors the reality of being undone by the House Un-American Committee, in its first starring role as cultural boogeyman. We could also have done with more than a paragraph or two of analysis at the end, but overall I'm quite pleased that I read this.

[Liz Barr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy theatrical history, social history and books about the Depression, so Furious Improvisation was pretty much a winner for me. (It makes me a bit sad that most of the popular histories of the Depression are American, but that’s the way it goes, y’know?) It’s a well-written look at the period of the New Deal, and the unpopular choice to direct government funds towards live theater. Because actors, stagehands, directors, they all need to eat too, y’know? And along the way, some terrible theatre is produced, as well as some groundbreaking, game-changing stuff like Orson Welles’ Voodoo Macbeth, the first professional production of Shakespeare with an all-black cast. (Things which should also be the subject of a book in their own right!)

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read about things like the Writers' Project before, but had read nothing about the Federal Theater Project.

Quinn shows the project reached well beyond Broadway, and brought theater to smaller parts of America. Beyond that, it didn't just do Shakespeare, but did more modern theater.

Or, with the genius of a 20-year-old Orson Welles, when it did do Shakespeare, it did a voodoo-themed Macbeth.

Beyond that, Quinn talks about how the FTP worked to break down segregation issues in local theater, walked landmines of issues with inter-union conflict and finally, was one of the first victims of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved theatre, and Susan Quinn has provided a marvelous look at a special time for the American stage. This is also a book that shows us once again how partisan politics has managed to squelch so much that has been good in our country.
As I read about the various stage productions that the Federal Theatre Project originated, I longed to see a contemporary version of the Living Newspapers.
What I good show. I almost stood and applauded Hallie Flanagan and her "cast of thousands" when Quinn brought down the curtain.

[Kathleen Hanes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting to me not just about the WPA theater, but to revisit the partisan stresses of the 1930s when FDR was seen as a socialist and people were fearing communism within the USA (and there were indeed some of that ilk, especially perhaps in the arts). Can we really look at our country today and call it far left or communist/socialist? Beware of the boggy men raised in troubled times. Hallie Flanagan of Iowa was quite the character. Never knew anything about her or her personal and career history -- quite the gal!

[Michael]

FURIOUS IMPROVISATION highlights a brief moment, when (despite bureaucratic cowardice and censorship from both the right and the left)Hallie Flanagan and her cohorts nearly managed to create a national theatre for the United States. That moment lives and breaths on every page of this tremendous work. While, at the end, it leaves one disheartened by how deeply the veins of Puritanism and intolerance run in this country, The Federal Theatre Projects' moments of triumph are transcendent.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book on a forgotten section of the WPA. Susan Quinn does an excellent job or telling the story of the Federal Theatre Project -- its inception, its struggles, its successes, and unfortunately eventual failure at the hands of politicians. But while it lasted, it was a bold and brilliant experiment to employ actors and stagehands, challenge artists, and expand theatre to a wider audience all over the country. A well-researched but well-told and very accessible read.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written history of a little-known aspect of the Depression and the government's response. Beyond illuminating the accomplishments of the WPA in the theater, the book reinforces some of the perceptions I gained from reading Franklin and Eleanor, dealing with Eleanor's inclinations and her influence with Franklin on some issues.

[Reb · Rating 4 out of 5]

EXCELLENT look at the cultural, political, and artistic landscape of the 1930s WPA/New Deal era. Great thing to read in the current recession. Fascinating to think what it would have been to have an ongoing Federal Theatre.

Definitely go watch the movie "The Cradle Will Rock," which covers similar material and is excellent, but read this too.

[Divya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It's a great read and the way Susan Quinn weaves in the history of the Depression along with the story of the Federal Theater is tasteful and classy yet not boring at all.

This book is great if you love theater, you're a history nut, or both!

[Corey Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book about a seldom-discussed piece of American history.

[Natalie]

Very informative read. Well-written.

[Lonni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal different view of New Deal. Very readable - if only textbooks were this good.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT book. I cruised through this pretty fast...skimming much. I can't wait to get a copy for myself and really dive into this!

[Dr Janice Flux · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is an amazing history of a time in the US when creativity was federally subsidized.