The East Side Freedom Library invites you to a dramatic presentation:

Staging Social Change:
The Great Experiment That Was the Federal Theater Project

Monday, October 29, 7pm

It Can’t Happen Here, photo: Kari Elizabeth Godfrey

During the Great Depression, the federal government funded a wide range of job creation programs, which became known as the “New Deal.” From shoveling snow in Buffalo, NY, to collecting the oral histories of elderly former slaves in Florida, the unemployed found not just jobs and a paycheck but opportunities to contribute to civic life. Perhaps the most controversial program was the Federal Theater Project, which produced politically daring and boundary breaking plays from big cities to small towns. This great experiment lasted only seven years, shut down by the House Unamerican Activities Committee which decided that the theater was spreading politically subversive ideas.

Local theater maker Kit Bix will discuss the glory and demise of the Federal Theater Project. With the assistance of actors Natalie Rae Weiss, Charles M. Numrich, Adrienne Louise Kleinman, Zach Holmquist, Jr., and Corey DiNardo, her presentation will include excerpts from her adaptations of It Can’t Happen Here and Revolt of the Beavers, both of which were hits at recent Fringe Festivals.  

Join us at the intersection of education and entertainment.

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East Side Freedom Library, 1105 Greenbrier St., St. Paul
Free and open to all
[email protected] and 651-230-3294