Dear Friends,
Happy February and happy Black History Month! We are continuing our research into The Federal Theatre Project, and this month discussed the Negro Theatre Unit's production of "Voodoo Macbeth". If you're unfamiliar, the Federal Theatre Project supported 17 "Negro Theatre Units" around the country to put Black performers back to work during the Great Depression. The Orson-Welles-directed production of Macbeth in 1936 was a sensation. Check out a short clip of the piece here.

Our Cold Readings are also still going strong. We recently finished enjoying our way through the Jeremy O. Harris-curated Golden Collection. This play collection aimed to put important plays by prominent Black writers into libraries and schools and homes across the country.

The Golden Collection includes:

• Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris
• Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry
• The Colored Museum by George Costello Wolfe
• An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins
• Sweat by Lynn Nottage
• A Collection of Plays (Wedding Band and Trouble in Mind) by Alice Childress
• Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks
• We Are Proud to Present a Presentation by Jackie Sibblies Drury
• The Mountaintop by Katori Hall
• Is God Is by Aleshea Harris
• Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith
• Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy
• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
• Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara
• Dream on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott

With each play we explored, we also encouraged attendees to donate to The National Black Theatre, an organization dedicated to “theatre that enhances African American cultural identity by telling authentic, autonomous, multifaceted stories of the Black experience.”

However you celebrate Black history this month and every month, we hope you'll include the incredible theater by Black artists present and past.

Ps. The FTP Book Club is in Full Swing! Our Federal Theatre Project book club is about halfway through Susan Quinn’s Furious Improvisation and enjoying the great conversations our readings have inspired! Though we are coming to the end of this particular book, we have plenty of more readings and discussions planned for the rest of 2022. Want to get involved? Email info@theaterinasylum.com to learn more!

Dear friends,

There are only two weeks left in our annual fundraiser! If you are in a position to, please consider donating to our 2022 campaign. You’ll be helping us put on a season of Cold Readings, produce one cabaret this Spring, and stage a workshop of a new play this summer. You’ll also be fueling our community exploration and long-term research extravaganza into the life and legacy of Hallie Flanagan, director of the Federal Theatre Project. We’ve long been obsessed with her and hope you’ll find her story as compelling, and energizing, as we do.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,

Paul, Katie, and Kathryn
Theater in Asylum

Director, playwright, producer, arts leader, author, traveler, educator, administrator, mother, newspaper enthusiast, hero!

Before her legendary tenure as the first and only director of the Federal Theatre Project, Hallie was a playwright and director working primarily at Vassar College. Originally the “Director of English Speech,” Hallie developed and led their experimental theater, eventually prompting the school to create a major in theater for the first time.

Her 1931 play, Can You Hear Their Voices?, adapted from the Whittaker Chambers story “Can you Make Out Their Voices” was a smash hit, captivating audiences with its unique, informative style that would eventually go on to become the “Newspaper Play” that the Federal Theatre Project championed. The piece, following a farmer uprising calling for food during the Dust Bowl, notably predated more well known stories like Grapes of Wrath and Waiting for Lefty.

In 1935, in the midst of the the Great Depression, Hallie’s childhood friend (and head of the Works Progress Administration) Harry Hopkins turned to Hallie to create and lead The Federal Theatre Project.

From 1935-1939, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a taxpayer-funded government program, part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), tasked with putting tens of thousands of theater artists back to work during the Great Depression.

“The primary aim of the Federal Theatre Project is the reemployment of theatre workers now on public relief rolls: actors, directors, playwrights, designers, vaudeville artists, stage technicians, and other workers in the theatre field. The far reaching purpose is the establishment of theatres so vital to community life that they will continue to function after the program of this Federal Project is completed.” - Hallie Flanagan, 1935

In the program’s brief four years of operation, the project employed over ten thousand theater artists, put over one thousand productions around the country, and had its work seen by over 16 million Americans in 30 states.

While exceedingly popular with artists and audience, the project was not without controversy. Accusations of communist organizing within the project led to increasing budget cuts and eventually the termination of the project after just four years.

A fundamental reevaluation of America’s priorities is actively under way. Crisis after crisis has shaken old assumptions and the balance of power. The theater industry, too, has had its foundations shaken. What does it mean to be an artist, or an arts worker, today? How should our work get made, and which work should get made? Who is our work for? How is it funded?

We’re obviously in favor of more theater available to more people, everywhere, all the time. AND that artists should be both respected and payed. We believe Hallie Flanagan when she asserted that:

“Neither should the theater in our country be regarded as a luxury. It is a necessity because in order to make democracy work the people must increasingly participate; they can't participate unless they understand; and the theater is one of the great mediums of understanding.”

We’re spending the next year developing a show to tell the story of Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theatre Project. We believe this story must be told so that its legacy and value won’t be lost in the ongoing discussion over our country’s future. Some questions we have:

• How did the FTP happen (politically, artistically, organizationally, financially, etc)?
• Who were the players and what did they do (overtly and covertly) to make the FTP happen?
• Who benefited from the FTP? Who was left out? Which stories got told and which stories didn’t?
• Why did the FTP end? Who and what exactly was the opposition and why?
• How might a federally funded theater happen again in this country? Should it?

Beginning early 2022 we begin a massive research, devising, and performance process. We’ve already begun a reading group to read Susan Quinn’s excellent history Furious Improvisation. This spring we will produce a cabaret of short pieces made by our community exploring the FTP. Later in the year we’ll commence an intensive workshop to script the show we aim to premiere in 2023.

If you’re in a position to, please make a donation to our annual campaign before it ends in a few weeks. We have huge ambitions to commission dozens of artists this year as we craft this new show.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Paul, Katie, and Kathryn
Theater in Asylum

Ps. There’s a new perk for donors to our fundraiser! A custom cover song by Ali Dineen! Check it out!

We made it! As 2021 comes to a close, we want to reiterate our gratitude to the community who made this year possible. For the past few weeks we've been looking back at all we achieved this year. If you missed it, here are a few links:

• Financial Transparency Report 2021
• All the organizations we supported in 2021
• Memories we'll cherish from 2021
• Performances we loved in 2021
• Books we loved in 2021
• Music we loved in 2021
• Movies & Television we loved in 2021

And below, find a review of all Theater in Asylum produced and accomplished this year. And if you're in a position to do so, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our dreams for 2022. Once again, thank you.

We are so grateful to the artists, audience, volunteers, donors, friends, and family who made Theater in Asylum's 2021 season possible. We are so lucky to have such a vibrant and supportive community.

As we turn the page on 2021, we look with hope to 2022. If you are in a position to do so, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our 2022 season.

Happy New Year!

Peace, power, and love to you,
Paul, Katie, Kathryn
Theater in Asylum

Dear friends,

Can you believe this year is nearly over? As we count down the final days of 2021, we asked our community to look back at all the things that brightened the year. What was unforgettable? What are we grateful for? On our blog we recently posted crowd-sourced lists of performances, books, music, and films we loved this year. And below here, find a list of moments we’ll never forget from 2021, as well as aspirations for 2022.

However you are spending these final few days of 2021, we hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on this wild year, and spend some time dreaming into the new year.

Have a happy new year, and we’ll see you in ‘22!

Peace, power, and love to you,
Paul, Katie, and Kathryn
Theater in Asylum

Ps. Theater in Asylum is raising money for our dreams in 2022! Help us achieve them!