The Playbook

A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

By: James Shapiro

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

A brilliant and daring account of a culture war over the place of theater in American democracy in the 1930s, one that anticipates our current divide, by the acclaimed Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro

From 1935 to 1939, the Federal Theatre Project staged over a thousand productions in 29 states that were seen by thirty million (or nearly one in four) Americans, two thirds of whom had never seen a play before. At its helm was an unassuming theater professor, Hallie Flanagan. It employed, at its peak, over twelve thousand struggling artists, some of whom, like Orson Welles and Arthur Miller, would soon be famous, but most of whom were just ordinary people eager to work again at their craft. It was the product of a moment when the arts, no less than industry and agriculture, were thought to be vital to the health of the republic, bringing Shakespeare to the public, alongside modern plays that confronted the pressing issues of the day—from slum housing and public health to racism and the rising threat of fascism.

The Playbook takes us through some of its most remarkable productions, including a groundbreaking Black production of Macbeth in Harlem and an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s anti-fascist novel It Can’t Happen Here that opened simultaneously in 18 cities, underscoring the Federal Theatre’s incredible range and vitality. But this once thriving Works Progress Administration relief program did not survive and has left little trace. For the Federal Theatre was the first New Deal project to be attacked and ended on the grounds that it promoted “un-American” activity, sowing the seeds not only for the McCarthyism of the 1950s but also for our own era of merciless polarization. It was targeted by the first House un-American Affairs Committee, and its demise was a turning point in American cultural life—for, as Shapiro brilliantly argues, “the health of democracy and theater, twin born in ancient Greece, have always been mutually dependent.”

A defining legacy of this culture war was how the strategies used to undermine and ultimately destroy the Federal Theatre were assembled by a charismatic and cunning congressman from East Texas, the now largely forgotten Martin Dies, who in doing so pioneered the right-wing political playbook now so prevalent that it seems eternal.

©2024 James Shapiro (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A vibrant history both of the astonishingly successful Federal Theatre Project and the culture wars that succeeded in quashing it. . . Its demise still resonates, Shapiro warns, with the Dies playbook revived by culture warriors noisily censoring the arts. Sharp history as cautionary tale.”—Kirkus

“Another captivating theater history in which politics and entertainment intersect . . . Shapiro’s exquisite backstage history also cannily reflects on present-day political implications. It’s a bravura performance.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Shapiro points out at the beginning of his fascinating, tightly written tome that the word playbook has two meanings—a book of scripts and a set of tactics employed in a competitive activity . . . The most compelling chapters, though, concern Texas Representative Martin Dies Jr. and the playbook he followed as director of the House Committee on Un-American Activities to target and, ultimately, bring down the Federal Theatre Project and Flanagan. Shapiro notes that Dies’ destructive tactic, using well publicized public hearings to spread hearsay, rumors, and half-truths about his targets and gain lots of press, became the model for subsequent culture warriors intent on securing notoriety and silencing unwelcome voices and dissent.”—Booklist

Interesting but not Captivating

Shapiro’s book about the Federal Theater Project was very interesting as I knew nothing at all about this extraordinary WPA project. Shapiro is an exceptional writer. The narration was also the best I have ever heard on Audible. The book is very well narrated. Unfortunately it did not really hold my interest as it was pretty clear how the project was unfairly slandered and lacked political support to be sustained. I was not as astonished as Shapiro that ideological works which criticized the government (even if they matched Shapiro’s ideology) were then resented for receiving taxpayer dollars. Shapiro delves into the personalities of main players but for me his words would have been better spent describing how the ambitious logistics of the project worked. If they could have spread the theater even further into the hinterlands, they might have had stronger political support (though local censorship and racism may have been an even bigger issue, I suppose).