{"id":3272,"date":"2012-03-14T13:33:39","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T18:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2012-06-14T12:31:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-14T17:31:07","slug":"reprocessing-the-federal-theatre-project-playscripts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3272","title":{"rendered":"Reprocessing the Federal Theatre Project – Playscripts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the first in a new series of blog posts focusing on the reprocessing of The Federal Theatre Project collection. The Federal Theatre Project was a government sponsored large scale arts endeavor that created jobs for thousands of unemployed theatre professionals during the years 1935 to 1939. George Mason University Special Collections and Archives houses a large collection of materials related to the Federal Theatre Project that includes photographs, posters, playscripts, radioscripts, oral histories, and play reader reports. We are currently reprocessing our collections with the hopes of making the materials easier to search, locate, and be available digitally. As each series undergoes reprocessing a blog post will update our progress. One of the first series we are working on is the playscripts series.<\/p>\n

There are over 880 productions represented by original and photocopied playscripts. Many of these playscripts have a plain white or green cover but there were a few that stood out to me with their hand drawn design and deep blue cover.<\/p>\n

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Playscripts circa 1936-1939 for Swing Low, Socko, Jocko, Kicko, and The Vagabond Puppeteers. By the Federal Theatre of Oklahoma, from The Federal Theatre Project collection, C0002. Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University<\/p><\/div>\n

These are the plays produced by the Vagabond Puppeteers marionette division of the Federal Theatre of Oklahoma. This group performed plays of local interest such as Chisbaohoyo, K. P. the Tenderfoot, Swing Low, and Socko, Jocko, Kicko. They toured the C.C.C. camps and were also very popular with the Parent-Teacher Association and \u201cwas booked in over fifty schools and was taking in through $.10 and $.25 admissions an average of over $100 a week when the project closed\u201d (Hallie Flanagan Arena<\/em>). Besides producing a number of fictional plays they also created an instructional play focusing on how to make and manipulate marionettes.<\/p>\n

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Detail from The Vagabond Puppeteers playscript, circa 1936-1939, by the Federal Theatre of Oklahoma from the Federal Theatre Project Collection C0002. Special Collections and Archives, George Mason University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rehousing and adding a description for the playscripts is only the first step in gaining better intellectual control over this large collection of multiple series. Through reprocessing we will be insuring the longevity of the materials so many students in the future will have original sources to use for researching and understanding this interesting and unique part of America\u2019s past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first in a new series of blog posts focusing on the reprocessing of The Federal Theatre Project collection. The Federal Theatre Project was a government sponsored large scale arts endeavor that created jobs for thousands of unemployed theatre professionals during the years 1935 to 1939. George Mason University Special Collections and Archives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,162],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-federal-theatre-project","category-recently-processed","tag-federal-theatre-project"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ep5i-QM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3318,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3318","url_meta":{"origin":3272,"position":0},"title":"Reprocessing the Federal Theatre Project \u2013 Programs","author":"admin","date":"March 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This blog is the second in a series on reprocessing the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) collection. As our finding aid for playscripts and radio scripts is now arranged it also includes programs. We have decided to divide playscripts, radio scripts, and programs each into their own series. The programs series\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/programs_illinoisFolder-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3461,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3461","url_meta":{"origin":3272,"position":1},"title":"Reprocessing the Federal Theatre Project – Viewshare","author":"admin","date":"June 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Digital projects are a great way to promote collections. At SC&A we having been adding new ways to interact with materials from our collections online. One online tool we are using to highlight the Federal Theatre Project collection is the Library of Congress endorsed Viewshare. Viewshare is a dynamic tool\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Screen-Shot-2012-06-01-at-12.05.26-PM-300x258.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3357,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3357","url_meta":{"origin":3272,"position":2},"title":"Reprocessing the Federal Theatre Project – Radioscripts","author":"admin","date":"April 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In support of JAM (Jazz Appreciation Month) I\u2019ve selected two scripts from the Federal Theatre Radio Division of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) to highlight in this update on reprocessing the FTP.\u00a0 In the radio script series we have over 200 original scripts used for radio productions. These productions are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/story_of_swingRadioscripts-300x201.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3577,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3577","url_meta":{"origin":3272,"position":3},"title":"New FTP finding aid available!","author":"admin","date":"August 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I am happy to announce that a new finding aid for the Federal Theatre Project collection is available! In total the collection numbers 363 boxes of material created by the Federal Theatre Project and donated to George Mason University from the Library of Congress. Originally the collection was much larger\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ftp_gifts1-169x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3555,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3555","url_meta":{"origin":3272,"position":4},"title":"Reprocessing the Federal Theatre Project – Music File","author":"admin","date":"July 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There were three main concerns that became apparent while reprocessing the Music File series of the Federal Theatre Project collection. When I opened the first box, I immediately noticed the sheet music was as large as the folders. This caused curling that hid the folder title and hindered removal from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/ftp_box313b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3791,"url":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?p=3791","url_meta":{"origin":3272,"position":5},"title":"Federal Theatre Project personal papers","author":"admin","date":"December 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A number of personal collections related to the Federal Theatre Project are now processed and finding aids are available online.\u00a0 The J. Howard Miller papers include custom-made\u00a0 scrapbooks bound by the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, part of the Works Progress Administration of Wisconsin. Inside the scrapbooks are programs, photographs, posters, flyers,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Federal Theatre Project"","block_context":{"text":"Federal Theatre Project","link":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vault217.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/millerScrapbook1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4101,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/4101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vault217.gmu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}