The Works Progress Administration or Work Projects Administration (WPA) was the largest New Deal agency. Created by the United States government in 1935, the agency provided jobs to unemployed workers during the Great Depression. During its tenure, the agency employed millions of job seekers to carry out public works projects such as constructing public buildings, roads, parks, and schools.
While many of the jobs created by the WPA were construction-oriented, one of its most famous projects, Federal Project Number One, employed out-of-work musicians, artists, writers, actors, and directors to reinvigorate art and culture. The five divisions created within the WPA to do this were the Federal Writers’ Project, the Historical Records Survey, the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Music Project, and the Federal Art Project. From 1935 through 1939, members of the Federal Theatre Project and the Federal Music Project toured throughout the United States, producing 1,200 plays and giving more than 225,000 performances.
The National Archives holds many WPA records, including those related to Federal Project Number One in Record Group 69: Records of the Work Projects Administration. Motion picture records include films such as A Better West Virginia and CCC at La Purisima, documenting community improvements made by the WPA and other New Deal agencies. Other films, such as The Technique of Fresco Painting and Danger in the Streets, were created for educational purposes. The film, We Work Again (Local ID: 69.6), discusses the employment of Black Americans by the WPA at construction sites, nursery schools, and adult training classes.
We Work Again also focuses on the employment of Black actors, directors, theatre technicians, musicians, singers, and playwrights by the Federal Music Project and Federal Theatre Project. In 23 cities, Black actors and musicians found employment with the music and theatre programs in segregated units referred to as Negro Units or in the case of the Federal Theatre Project, the Negro theatre Project (NTP).
The Federal Music Project members were unemployed professional musicians hired by the project as instrumentalists, singers, concert performers, and music teachers. They performed concerts nationwide for live audiences and on radio broadcasts to educate the public on the appreciation of musical opportunities. The singers featured here are performing under the direction of William Lawrence and Juanita Hall. Hall directs the choir in a rendition of the song Ezekiel Saw the Wheel. Additional recordings of the performances of the Federal Music Project can be found in NARA’s catalog as well as in the holdings of the Library of Congress and several radio archives.
One of the most successful plays produced by the Federal Theatre Project was Orson Welles’s rendition of Macbeth. The 1936 stage production, commonly called “Voodoo Macbeth,” occurs in 19th-century Haiti. It was Welles’s first major theatre directing job, launching his career. The play also allowed Black actors to perform larger roles beyond usual restrictions as backup singers and dancers. The cast members included actors Jack Carter, who played Macbeth, Maurice Ellis, who played Macduff and Macbeth, and Charles Collins, who played Macduff. When the show opened, it was so successful that tickets were sold out for weeks, helping to bolster the reputation of the Federal Theatre Project and promote Black theatre and artists.
We Work Again contains the only known footage of the 1936 Macbeth production. Before identification in this film, it was assumed that sound and moving images of the play did not exist. You can view the final five minutes of Macbeth and the entirety of We Work Again by visiting NARA’s online catalog.
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Absolutely fascinating! What a bold and groundbreaking production for its time.