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Should The FTP: An Unconstitutional Or Successful?

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When the Great Depression hit, poverty struck and people were unemployed. The people needed a leader and it was Franklin Roosevelt. He implemented the New Deal where the government had to step into and help struggling businesses. The arts were struggling so the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was created. Even though the FTP succeeded in reaching many of its goals, it ultimately did not succeed. Although the FTP achieved its goal of letting people in for free, it was considered unconstitutional because of the bias towards specific groups. The government funded the FTP so the plays were funded by tax dollars. “ Federal theatre units presented more than 1000 performances each month for nearly one million people” (Text 3). One million people of different races, religions, and classes attended the free admission productions. The plays portrayed one class over another, even though they were being funded with the taxpayers’ money. Therefore, the project ended with more problems than it could handle. Despite the FTP providing jobs to thousands of struggling artists, it only lasted four short years, which put people out of work anyways. The Great Depression forced many theatres to close and leave artists with no way out. The FTP tried to …show more content…

“ When the New York FTP unit tried to get a recording of President Roosevelt's speech on Ethiopia to use in the production, the White House became alarmed at the content of the piece and banned the impersonation of any foreign ruler on the Federal Theatre stage” (Text 3). This quote shows an example of how the government shut down a play because it was showing the government in a negative way. This drew controversy over how the productions should be written or portrayed because the government was funding the plays and the plays were making fun of the government. Due to the controversy and how the plays were presented, the FTP was shut

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