A number of personal collections related to the Federal Theatre Project are now processed and finding aids are available online. The J. Howard Miller papers include custom-made scrapbooks bound by the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, part of the Works Progress Administration of Wisconsin. Inside the scrapbooks are programs, photographs, posters, flyers, and newspaper clippings. Miller was an actor and stage manager, and he worked with the Federal Theatre Project as an assistant to Hallie Flanagan, as the Regional Director in the west, and later as the Deputy National Director.
Two scrapbooks from the J. Howard Miller papers. The one on the left features photographs and promotional flyers for a production of Alice in Wonderland performed at the Savoy Theatre in San Diego. J. Howard Miller papers C0228, Box 1. Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University.
More recently added collections include:
Sundgaard worked for the Chicago Federal Theatre Project and is best known as the writer of the Living Newspaper production Spirochete. He worked with the FTP from 1936 to 1938 as an author and play reader, after which he made a living as a writer. This collection is larger than many of the other FTP personal gift collections and includes materials that span Sundgaard’s career as an author. He is the author of plays, articles for the New Yorker and Atlantic magazines, children’s books, and various music and lyrics.
Originally from Suffolk, Virginia, Browne joined the Federal Theatre Project in Seattle, Washington. In Seattle, he worked with the Civic Repertory Theatre, a community theater group that would become the Seattle Negro Unit of the Works Progress Administration in 1936. The unit produced four plays written by Brown including Lysistrata of Aristophanes, A Black Woman called Moses, Swing, and Natural Man.
Eda Edson directed the Los Angeles Federal Theatre Project variety unit’s productions Follow the Parade and The Black Crook.
The Ben Russak papers is a collection of Federal Theatre Project and Federal Writers’ Project material collected by Ben Russak from 1935 to 1942. The papers include playscripts and publications created by the Federal Theatre Project, as well as pamphlets and collections of folklore material created by the Federal Writers’ Project.
Southwestern folk history (Oklahoma), May 27, 1939 (box 3, folder 7) and Nebraska folklore: Animal legends, August 1, 1937 (box 4, folder 8), Ben Russak papers C0221, Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University.
The Kate Lawson papers includes newspaper clippings and press releases on Federal Theatre Project productions, FTP administrative correspondence including job descriptions, memorandums on employee reclassification, complaints from employees and audience survey questionnaires, research lists, production records, and personal correspondence.
Louis M. Simon worked for the Federal Theatre Project as New Jersey State Director and later as Production Director in New York State. The Louis Simon papers contains newspaper clippings, photographs, programs, and correspondence relating to Federal Theatre in New Jersey and New York.
Federal Theatre Project personal papers