THE FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT
HALLIE FLANAGAN (1939)
Hallie Flanagan
1889 - 1969
Director of the Federal Theatre Project.
Written and Performed by: Ashlee Ramey
Setting: New York, NY, 1938
Hallie Flanagan has just returned to her office after her meeting with the House Un-American Activities Committee, in which she was told that The Federal Theatre Project would no longer be funded due to suspicion of her work supporting a socialist agenda. As Hallie is packing up her office, she rants about the events to her co-worker.
(we hear the shuffling of Hallie packing up her office in the background) They can’t be serious. They sat there bumping gums the entire time and the second I try to talk some actual sense they shut me down! I would’ve been better off talking to a brick wall than that poor excuse of a committee. Do they not realize all I’ve done? The blood, sweat, and tears I’ve poured into this work?! I hired thousands of people, showed so many others the value of theatre. I made people think, made them want to fight for a change. We were the yeast making the bread rise. But the gas went out, leaving me to watch everything fall. And for what? To be called a communist?!? A communist of all things! No matter my reasoning they were never willing to listen. Now all I’ve done has been poured down the drain. I’ve run out of time (Hallie throws her clock into the box). Is this all I’ll be known for? The women who caused The Federal Theatre Project to fall. No, this is not what I will allow myself to be. I will not let this define me. They can stop the funding, but the bigger issue is that they can't stop me.
Perry Bruskin • Martin Dies • Hallie Flanagan (1935) • Hallie Flanagan (1939) • Rosamond Gilder • Susan Glaspell • Hazel Huffman • Frida Kahlo • Mary Merrill • Virginia Nicholson • Elmer Rice • Eleanor Roosevelt (1935) • Eleanor Roosevelt (1939) • Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Olive Stanton • Helen Tamiris • Orson Welles • Artwork • Collaborators • Directors’ Note • Front Page Tableau • Music • Pen Pals • Research/Source Material • Share Your Thoughts • Special Thanks