THE NOBODIES WHO WERE EVERYBODY
The Nobodies Who Were Everybody is a new play by Theater in Asylum telling the story of the Federal Theatre Project: its participants, its obstacles, and its echoes still felt today. Operating from 1935–1939 and led by the incomparable Hallie Flanagan, the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a federally-funded enterprise, putting thousands of performers to work creating theater across the country. With this show we ask: How did it happen? Why did it stop? With the FTP model, or with a new one, how do we today give artists the support, and American audiences the theater, they deserve?
Synopsis
The Nobodies Who Were Everybody follows six artists from the FTP’s inception in 1935 through its demise in 1939. Our characters represent, in Hallie Flanagan's words, the "ten thousand anonymous men and women who did the work, the somebodies who believed" in the Federal Theatre Project and made it exist. We look to the Project's successes as well as the tougher internal moments, such as when the Project didn't fulfill its ambitions of desegregation and supporting Black artists. Our show also tracks the external pressures the FTP were under: productions faced near-constant Congressional censorship, and accusations of Communism led to the erosion of the FTP budget and eventually the cancellation of the project. Our characters fracture in debate as the play jumps forward in time. Over 80 years later, a group of artists on Zoom –some benefitting from Covid Relief grants, others on New York’s City Artist Corp grant– wrestle with the same questions of public funding and art’s value in society.
Synopsis
The Nobodies Who Were Everybody follows six artists from the FTP’s inception in 1935 through its demise in 1939. Our characters represent, in Hallie Flanagan's words, the "ten thousand anonymous men and women who did the work, the somebodies who believed" in the Federal Theatre Project and made it exist. We look to the Project's successes as well as the tougher internal moments, such as when the Project didn't fulfill its ambitions of desegregation and supporting Black artists. Our show also tracks the external pressures the FTP were under: productions faced near-constant Congressional censorship, and accusations of Communism led to the erosion of the FTP budget and eventually the cancellation of the project. Our characters fracture in debate as the play jumps forward in time. Over 80 years later, a group of artists on Zoom –some benefitting from Covid Relief grants, others on New York’s City Artist Corp grant– wrestle with the same questions of public funding and art’s value in society.
The Team
- Created by Theater in Asylum
- Scripted and Developed by: Marcella Adams, Paul Bedard, Sarah Biery, Christopher DeSantis, Nadia Diamond, Ali Dineen, Addy Paul Jenkins, Adin Lenehan, Katie Palmer, Al Parker, Francine Pinheiro, Arisael Rivera, Dan Stearns, Cindy Wong
- Directed by Paul Bedard & Katie Palmer
- Dramaturgy by Al Parker
- Lighting design by Dan Stearns
- Stage managed by Sarah Biery & Cody Hom
- Production support from Kathryn Appleton
- Marketing and PR by Charlotte Dow
Timeline & Development History
- August 27, 1935: The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) is established.
- June 30, 1939: The FTP is defunded.
- September 29, 1965: The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is established.
- 1990: The "NEA Four" have their funding cancelled and the issue goes all the way to the Supreme Court with National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley. Following this, the Republican Party in Congress renews attacks on the NEA, drastically cutting its budget and permanently ending the funding of individual artists.
- 2016: Theater in Asylum hosts a Cold Reading of It Can't Happen Here, 80 years after its 21-theater, simultaneous premiere at FTP theaters around the country.
- 2016: Theater in Asylum hosts a Cold Reading of The Cradle Will Rock, 79 years after its controversial and semi-sanctioned FTP production.
- 2017 & 2018: Congress rejects Trump Administration budgets defunding the NEA.
- 2020: During the Covid-19 lockdown, Theater in Asylum begins exploring the FTP.
- July 29, 2020: Theater in Asylum hosts a Cold Reading of the Living Newspaper One-Third of a Nation, 82 years after its FTP production at Broadway's Adelphi Theatre.
- August 19, 2020: Theater in Asylum hosts a Cold Reading of the Living Newspaper Power, 83 years after its FTP production.
- April 21, 2021: Theater in Asylum hosts a Cold Reading of the Living Newspaper Spirochete, 83 years after its FTP production.
- April 23, 2022: Theater in Asylum hosts a Cold Reading of the Living Newspaper E=MC², 74 years after Hallie Flanagan's original production.
- Winter 2022: Theater in Asylum hosts a book club to read Susan Quinn's Furious Improvisation.
- May 13 & 14, 2022: Theater in Asylum produces The FTP Cabaret.
- Spring 2022: Theater in Asylum hosts a book club to read Kate Dossett's Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal.
- August 2022: Theater in Asylum convenes for a week-long workshop to develop a full-length show.
- January 18, 2023: A full-length reading of the now-titled The Nobodies Who Were Everybody is presented at Under St. Marks Theater.
- February 17, 2023: A revision of the full script is ready by the company.
