INTRODUCTION

In the New York of the 1930s the economy was crushed and salaries for those who still had them were at rock bottom. Fifteen million Americans were unemployed. The federal government, facing tremendous difficulties, issued a policy of relief works. Roosevelt's ideology was that earning a living is a basic human dignity, preferable to handing out money and letting people sit idle. The first Relief Act was passed on 31 March 1933, and six weeks later a Federal Emergency Relief Administration was established. The emphasis at this stage was on supplying work immediately, so in November 1933 Congress established the Civil Works Administration, which created 4.2 million jobs in the space of just nine weeks. The jobs included laying sewer pipes and building and improving roads, playgrounds, schools and so on. By 1935 the government had put more stress on social and human values, with priority on fitting jobs to the skills and trades of the workers.

In April 1935 Congress approved a budget of $4.8 billion for the Emergency Relief Act. From this enormous sum some 5 percent – $27 million – was set aside for arts projects. A project called the Federal Theater received about $6.8 million for providing work to unemployed theatrical professionals, through “production units”: theatres. As a rule, each production unit could choose up to 10 percent of its workforce from professional actors, to ensure good standards of performance.