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The Great Depression and the Arts
A Unit of Study for Grades 8-12

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Student Handouts: The New Deal's Federal Theatre Project

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Scene from the New York City production of Power. Federal Theatre Project.
Scene from the New York City production of Power. Federal Theatre Project. (Library of Congress).
A Suggestion for Legislation to Create the Tennessee Valley Authority, Franklin Roosevelt, April 10, 1933

Understand the Meaning

  1. What were the basic goals/purposes of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as identified in 1933 by FDR?

Making Inferences

  1. What are the reasons this New Deal program was controversial?
  2. How does the TVA address the problems of the Great Depression?
  3. What problems would the TVA be addressing if there had been no Great Depression?
  4. What are the ways American life changed during the 1930s as a result of the TVA?

Power: A Living Newspaper, Arthur Arent (First produced February 23, 1937)

Act 1, Scene 15, Prologue

  1. According to "Loudspeaker" what is life like in the Tennessee Valley?
  2. What caused these conditions?

Act 1, Scene 15A

  1. How does the farmer respond to his wife's lament about the lack of electricity?
  2. What is the solution the wife proposes?
  3. What will electricity do for this family?

Act 1, Scene 15B

  1. Specifically, what is the problem posed in this scene? Compare and contrast this scene of an urban-dwelling husband and wife with the farm couple in the previous scene.
  2. How is the situation for the city couple different from the farm couple? Compare the solution proposed by the wife with that of the wife in the previous scene.

Act 1, Scene 15C

  1. This scene is a follow-up to Scene 15A. The farmer confronts the electric company manager.
  2. What must the farmer do to get electricity?
  3. How is the electric company manager portrayed in this scene?

Act 1, Scene 15D

This scene is a follow-up to Scene 15B. A city man confronts the commissioner.

  1. Why is the man complaining to the public service commissioner?
  2. What is the commissioner's position? Does the scene portray the commissioner as an "agent" of the utility company?
  3. According to the dialogue in this scene, what is the reason for high electric rates?

Act 1, Scene 15E

  1. What is meant by the "cost yardstick"?
  2. How does the TVA song promote the government program in the Tennessee Valley?

Act 2, Scene 6 (Finale)

  1. What are the arguments for and against TVA?
  2. How do the flashbacks to the farm and city dwellers counter the statements of Mr. Justice McReynolds?
  3. Answer the question posed by the "Loudspeaker," Who is the public interest?
  4. What position does Power take regarding the desirability of the TVA?
  5. What would a critic of the New Deal say about the play's propaganda content? Why?


Roosevelt's Second Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937

If We Would make Democracy Succeed, I Say We Must Act—NOW!, Roosevelt's Address at the Democratic Victory Dinner, March 4, 1937

Fireside Chat, Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 9, 1937

In these three documents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt repeats a phrase which becomes the theme for a Living Newspaper FTP production.

Understanding the Meaning

  1. What is President Roosevelt's evaluation of New Deal measures to end the depression during his first term?
  2. According to the president, what are the task that lay ahead?
  3. What is the current crisis as outlined in Roosevelt's Victory Dinner speech? Why does he consider this crisis more grave than those previously faced?

Making Inferences

  1. In the fireside chat, how does Roosevelt infer that the Supreme Court is working contrary to the wishes of the people?
  2. Were the remarks in these addresses regarding one-third of the nation living in poverty political rhetoric or a valid reflection of FDR's concerns? Support your answer with evidence drawn from historical evaluations of Roosevelt and the New Deal.

One-Third of a Nation: A Living Newspaper, Arthur Arent, (First produced January 17, 1938)

Act 1, Scene 4C (What They Got)

  1. What is the relationship between slums and disease?
  2. How does the drama produce an atmosphere of fear?
  3. Why does the play focus on a mid-nineteenth-century cholera epidemic?

Act 1, Scene 5 (Appoint a Committee)

  1. How does this scene link the past (Act 1, Scene 4C) to the 1930's?
  2. In the 1930s what diseases replace cholera? Why?
  3. In 1850 what caused epidemic diseases?
  4. What solutions were proposed? What was done?

Act 2, Scene 2D (Rent Strike)

  1. What is a rent strike?
  2. Why do the tenants think they will not be evicted if they have a rent strike?
  3. What are the ideas about what is just and fair raised by the strikers? Whose side is the play on? Why?

Act 2, Scene 5 (Looking Forward)

  1. According to the drama, who is responsible for slum conditions? Why is "inertia" blamed? Explain.
  2. How grave is the housing problem in New York City? What will it take to solve the problem?
  3. What is the point of bringing up the military budget in the play?
  4. What are the economics of providing housing for the lowest one-third of the nation?
  5. What role, if any, should the federal government play in solving these problems? Why?

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The Great Depression and the Arts

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