Power (play)

POWER
A Living Newspaper
by Arthur Arent

ag·it·prop /ˈædʒɪtˌprɒp/ –noun
1. agitation and propaganda, esp. for the cause of communism.

I am leftist, I will admit it. Not a Leftist, I do not define myself that way, that is not me as a person. But my belief system veers to the left of center. I believe in tolerance and compassion, I accept alternate points of view, and often champion them. And I believe in the obligation of our society, our civilization, our government, to see to the needs and assistance of those who need assistance.

I am not a Communist. Neither am I a Capitalist, in its purest sense. I am against slavery. I am against slave-like conditions. I oppose starvation and want. I oppose fear, fear of oppression, of domination, either through direct threatening means, or by the endorsement and reinforcement of the dominant paradigm, of the necessity of an underclass, or workers doing all they can for little while the few live lives of unspeakable luxury and waste. And yes, that might make me sound like a Socialist. Today, over 55% of Americans believe the President is a Socialist, which means they don't really know what the fuck that word even means, but if they think Barack Obama is one, then paint me red and call me Uncle Joe.

Having said that, upon reading another "Living Newspaper" by Arthur Arent, I am not so sure I feel as strongly as I once did about the House Committee on Un-American Activities efforts at pulling down the Federal Theater Project.

The majority of work created by the FTP was non-political. There were many children's plays, and when conservatives called those productions out for indoctrinating the young against the Man, well that is probably because most good, strong children's stories do have moral lessons pertaining to fairness, honesty, being kind, and all kinds of messages that leave, I dunno, British Petroleum, for example, withering under scrutiny.

But these Living Newspapers are inarguably agitprop - they are propaganda which agitates. They are not well-told stories which inspire the mind or the heart. They are also not dispassionate portrayals of fact. In the case of POWER they are quotes taken out of context (Arent himself admitted this was a technique of The Living Newspaper, though he did not use that turn of phrase) and bent in such a way as to turn the viewer in a certain direction, and keep them pointed that way until a direct appeal is made; the audience is instructed, to-wit, to rise up, take a stand, to take action against the forces which oppress them. To stand with strong government and against big business.

Are these good ideas? If you can't find work and your children are dying before your eyes, well, sure, they are the only ideas. I didn't say it was wrong, or even proper to create this work. But reading it, I can understand why there are those who would believe that plays which champion the efforts of the current administration should not be paid for with public funds.

William F. McDermott

William F. McDermott
(Feb. 17, 1891 - Nov. 16, 1958)

Born in Indiana, attended Butler College, McDermott came to Cleveland in 1921 to become drama critic for The Plain Dealer. In addition to writing theater reviews for the Cleveland and New York stages, and making travels to Europe to interview literary luminaries, he also wrote columns on various issues of the day.
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History notes that he wrote against censorship in the 1950s, I'd like to know more about that. Much has been made of a certain doting actress restaging an entire production from the Hanna in his living room in Bratenahl when he was too ill to make it to the theater.

What McDermott and I disagree on - the value of federally funded theater. What we agree on - the brilliance of Tennessee Williams.

According to Dennis McDougal the young Louis Wasserman worked to ascend the rungs of Cleveland nightlife by plying local journalists with liquor ("buying them drinks, partying with them at the Alcazar Hotel, escorting them home") and occasionally writing their items for them when they got too loaded. The list of theater critics Wasserman claims to have ghosted for is all-inclusive, including Mr. McDermott.

Sources:
The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

R.U.R. - or - Rossum’s Universal Robots (1936)

Ja tvoi rabotnik.

HELENA
But man is suppsed to be the product of God.

DOMIN
All the worse. God hasn’t the slightest notion of modern engineering.
Karel Capek’s R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) was originally written in Czech in 1921, with a translation provided by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair. It as produced by the Cleveland Repertory Unit of the Federal Theatre Project at the Carter Theater in September, 1936.

Inspired no doubt by the Frankenstein story, this tale establishes the template for all future stories about artificial intelligence. What happens when man plays God and creates a being stronger than itself?

The character of Rossum and his son, who created this biological creature (the notes state that “robot” is simply the Czech word for “worker”) never appear, they are this story’s pre-history. The character of Domin has taken their creation, and made a business out of it. His dream is to rid our species of toil. We will all be aristocrats, liberated from work. The robot does not feel, does not want, does not care. The perfect slave.

But this is all metaphor, right? We never want to think that those who work for us care, or feel, or want. They are happy where they are. They would not have it any other way. The worker does, however, rise up against its oppressor, to disastrous results - for everyone, including the robots.

"R.U.R." Program
(Carter Theatre, 1936)

Reading period plays, I am constantly amazed at how many ideas are, well ... old. As a result of the preponderance of substitute people (though we are reminded more than once, “robots are not people”) people ceased to be able to procreate. Nature is out of balance. We are creating life that replaces us, and the life-force assumes we no longer need to reproduce in the old-fashioned way.

Cleveland Plain Dealer - September 8, 1936 Federal Theater Here Produces Karel Kapek’s ‘R.U.R.’ Robot Play, review by William McDermott

McDermott spends over half of the review lamenting for-profit theater and lambasting this exercise in providing work to unemployed actors. Fourteen paragraphs in, he begins to discuss the play itself.

Neither the play nor the performance would have the slightest chance of success in the ordinary operation of the commerical theater.

Much better plays of this sort are written today by men like Odets. But "R.U.R.", in its time had a certain tension, excitement and significance. For two acts the author builds and atmosphere of universal ominousness - and when the roots (sic) finally revolt, there should be a scene of magnificent terror.

In this performance neither the preparation nor the denoument despite a couple a couple of worthy personations had any quality of the sinister or any feeling of passionate resentment, or any of that high note of dramatic awesomeness which is the very essence of the theme.

“Dramatic awesomeness.” With two words, I suddenly begin enjoying McDermott’s review.

The play, in short, escaped the actors. I suppose some of it was lost in the spacious, and largely empty recesses of the Carter Theater, for many of the lines echoed through the unoccupied reaches of the theater and were not clearly received by such ears as were there to receive them.

No, he’s a dick.

Cleveland Citizen

Maximillian Sebastian "Max" Hayes (1866—1945) was a newspaper editor, trade union activist, and socialist politician. He is best remembered as the long-time editor of the Cleveland Citizen and as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Farmer-Labor Party ticket in 1920. - Wikipedia

THE CLEVELAND CITIZEN - January 5, 1936
Publication Office, Central and East 14th Street
"The Official Newspaper of Organized Labor, est. 1890"

THINGS TO THINK
By Art and Monda Bender

The conditions iin the U.S. For the next 10 years could be estimated to become something like this …

Roosevelt will lead the liberals and win by a moderate margin.

The administration in 37 or 39 will be forced to take complete U.S. Ownership of the banking system.

The railroads, by 39, will be government owned and operated.

A 30-hour work week will go into effect by 39 to guarantee employment to all workers.

Because of the miraculous efficiency of technological production, the government will be forced to exercise a strict control over production.

All public utilities, by 1945, will have been taken over.

All registrants will will be required to register under one or more of the seven natural classes of effort to secure a legitimate income: Production, Distribution Management, Professional, Creative, Public Protection and Beneficiaries.

We believe 90 percent of the widowers or widows would remarry if the conditions were favorable. This suggests that there are few real love matches. The marriage of Thomas Edison’s widow recently 70 years old, suggest she did not have a true love for Edison or that she does not believe in the existence of other worlds after death.

Merrily We Roll Along (play)

“I’m going to work like seven devils.” - Richard Niles
Merrily We Roll Along, Kaufman & Hart

In October, 1936 the Cleveland Play House produced Merrily We Roll Along, Kaufman & Hart’s hit 1934 Broadway comedy. If you can call it a comedy. I mean, it’s hilarious, but it is dark, too. It is not, however, a “dark comedy.” The production was a great success for the Play House, playing to sold-out houses.

I had never read it before, never seen it, never really read about it. I know about Sondheim’s musical, which I now really, really want to experience, because I love Sondheim more than I love George S. Kaufman.

Who gets to come up with an idea first? The structure of this play is novel, and yet very, very tricky. Put simply, every scene happens in reverse chronological order, from a fancy post-show opening party in New York in 1934, to 1927, then 1926, 1925 and so on, and we end at a college graduation in 1916. We see characters as adults at the pinnacle of success, or after a fall, and watch the decisions they made to get there, the compromises, the mistakes, the love and anger, the hard work, and the easy breaks.

In reaching back in time, it is too easy to make the knowing gag. I could write a play right now about 1936 that is one, big knowing gag. We know how history has played out, and by having someone say something ignorant, or unknowable, we all groan or laugh or worst of all, smirk. That doesn’t happen in this play, it’s one big open wound. There are plenty of “don’t open that box!" moments, but that doesn’t make us feel smug. Because we know we would have done the same thing. It makes me sad.

There is a point in Red when Rothko, with intense incredulity, asks his young apprentice if he seriously believes that in 100 years anyone will remember Andy Warhol. It’s a cheap joke. It’s supposed to illustrate Rothko’s tunnel-vision, but it only makes him seem, to us, clueless and stupid. See how fun that is? You are smarter about art than Mark Rothko. Good for you.

Give Shakespeare New 'Pep' At Globe

Cleveland Press - Friday, March 27
Globe Players May Visit Expo

Negotiations were under way to bring the Globe Theatre Players and their repertoire of Shakespearean plays to Cleveland this summer as one of the features of the Great Lakes Exposition. The players’ group was organized during the Century of Progress in Chicago (1934) and since has given more that 2500 performances before 1.5M spectators.

The Old Globe Theatre at the Great Lakes Exposition presented five plays on weekdays and seven on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays (check out the times on the sign post there.) They strove for accuracy in presentation, though the balcony was a facade and there were seats for the groundlings. And electricity.

The Plain Dealer - Sunday, June 28
GIVE SHAKESPEARE NEW ‘PEP’ AT GLOBE
by W. Ward Marsh
“Actors in Theater of 1599 Play Bard’s Work in New Tempo”

Before each performance there is English folk dancing on the “green,” in this case a great concrete square. Music was furnished by recorder, and Elizabethan flute, and the dancing was gracefully and trippingly done by youthful students from the Fairhope Organic School of Fairhope, Ala. So strenuous are the dances that it may easily be understood why this form of rhtyhmic exercise was left to the young people.

The interior of the theater is somberly finished and plainly furnished with good, serviceable and hard benches.

The lighting, the English style of architecture on either side of the auditorium and prominent on the side walls diectly in front of the simultaed balconies, and even the structure overhead, shutting out the sky and weather with equal thoroughness, suggest to the eye a serious and honest attempt to re-create Will’s old Globe, but the smell is of new pine and fresh stain and the concrete floor is harder than Adriana’s heart and thicker than Audrey’s head.

I feel the speed of the day as well as the swift flicker of the movie have left a kind of imprint upon these lively and interesting tabloid versions of Shakespeare, all of which retain the meat of the the original if at times omitting the dessert of well turned phrases and longer disseratations.

His plays moved with a speed which would astound the so-called “old Shakespearean actors.” Gone are pomp and awe and reverence. The bard is presented as he intended his plays to be given - for entertainment only.

The “original Chicago cast” has been split three ways, with Cleveland getting its share along with Dallas and San Diego, where, I am led to believe, are other expositions. The remaining members of the cast here were recrutied and trained by Director Wood and then play in starless casts; that is, no player is featured and one in a leading role this afternoon may be a curtain puller or the town crier at night.

A visit to the Globe is not only a pleasant experience but a worthwhile adventure on your exposition tour.

Go Down Death

Aaron Douglas
Go Down Death, 1934
Oil on masonite
48" x 36"
In the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, I took in this painting this morning. Part of the God's Trombones series, this work illustrates a funeral sermon from James Weldon Johnson's book (God's Trombones) and depicts an Angel of Death riding down to take Sister Caroline into the arms of Jesus.

Note the radiating star in the upper left. Death is sometimes depicted as a falling star. It could also be the North Star. It is also an obvious Communist symbol. Death frees the slave from bondage. The North Star representative of the Underground Railroad. So, too, would the Communist Party lead the Negro to freedom.

Source: The David C. Driskell Center