Reading & the Stage

Voodoo Macbeth — Federal Theatre Project, 1936

The FTP’s own silkscreened playbill for Orson Welles’s all-Black Harlem Macbeth.

Haiti, a drama of the black Napoleon, by William Du Bois, Lafayette Theatre

Vera Bock's stylized black Napoleon stares out of a 1938 Lafayette Theatre playbill — silkscreen at its most imperious.

The WPA Federal Dance Theatre presents "The eternal prodigal"

A Federal Dance Theatre bill for "The Eternal Prodigal," squeegeed in flat silkscreen colour on board.

Federal Theatre Marionettes present "A Christmas carol"

A horn-blowing herald in period dress strides down the street to cry the Federal Theatre Marionettes' "A Christmas Carol."

"The chocolate soldier"

A woman and a soldier, silkscreened to sell a Federal Music Project staging of "The Chocolate Soldier" in Pasadena.

W.P.A. Federal Theatre Project's Living Newspaper, sponsored by Newspaper Guild of N.Y., presents "Injunction granted"

A cop hoists a court order aloft in Harry Herzog's 1936 silkscreen for the Living Newspaper's "Injunction Granted."

W.P.A. Federal Theatre Negro Unit in "Noah" a human comedy

Noah rides an animal-packed ark, silkscreened to bill the Federal Theatre's Negro Unit at Harlem's Lafayette.

Federal Music Project presents the comic opera "Die fledermaus" - "The bat" by Johann Strauss

A single spread-winged bat carries the whole poster for the Federal Music Project's "Die Fledermaus."

W.P.A. concerts of unusual music

A grand piano cut to a few flat silkscreen shapes, advertising free WPA concerts of music nobody else was playing.

"Carmen"

A matador in flat silkscreen color, standing in for the whole of Bizet's Seville.

W.P.A. Federal Theatre presents "Native ground" by Virgil Geddes

A plow abandoned in the field, the farmhouse shrunk to the horizon - a whole Dust Bowl decade in one silkscreened bill.

Symphony concerts

A silkscreened notice for Federal Music Project symphony nights at the Theatre of Music, 254 West 54th Street.

WPA in Ohio Federal Music Project presents Verdi's grand opera "Il trovatore"

Verdi's grand opera, staged in Ohio on federal relief money and advertised in hand-pulled silkscreen.

Be kind to books club

Children hoist a sign for the Be Kind to Books Club - WPA reading gospel at its most disarming.

Don't gum up a book

A boy tramps across an open book on gum-sticky hands and feet — WPA library manners at their bluntest.

Rain is bad for a book!

A boy raises his umbrella and sits on the open book, letting the weather do its worst.

October's "bright blue weather"

A boy reads while a bat, a ghost, and a witch crowd in from the margins of October.

Exhibition — oils & watercolors, Federal Art Gallery

A palette and brushes announce oils and watercolors at the Federal Art Gallery — horizontal, silkscreened, unsigned.

Exhibition (Federal Art Project, Greek figure holding print)

A Greek head in profile lifts a print to the light — Milhous selling art with art, cut in wood.

East side, West side exhibition of photographs

A photographer lines up his shot with the New York skyline stacked at his back.

Young and old visit the library on the parkway

A family sets out for the library on the parkway, printed in 1936 as a WPA colour lithograph.

Federal Theatre (on) Treasure Island "Swing mikado"

A woman dancer in mid-motion advertises the Federal Theatre's swing-band Mikado at the 1939 Treasure Island fair.

"The Mikado"

A screened Japanese tea garden fronts a Federal Music Project Mikado at El Centro High School.

Gala puppet circus

One clown's head, screened in flat circus colour, carries an entire Federal Theatre puppet show.

Federal WPA Variety Theatre presents vaudeville

A singer mid-note, flung across a silkscreened poster for a nine-act WPA vaudeville bill.

Federal Theatre Project presents 10 acts all star vaudeville

Ten acts, a chorus line and an orchestra pressed onto one silkscreened sheet for a hall in Salem, Massachusetts.

Illinois symphony orchestra

One outsized musical note carries an entire symphony bill at the Great Northern Theatre.

Hall Johnson's famous negro music-drama "Run, little chillun"

Two singers, two dancers, and a silkscreened call to the Savoy Theatre in San Diego.

Presented by The Federal Dance Theatre "Young tramps"

Two figures walking in the rain, cut in silkscreen for the Federal Dance Theatre's "Young Tramps."

Snow White and the seven dwarfs

Snow White, a prince and all seven dwarfs crowded into one hand-screened WPA sheet.

In March read the books you've always meant to read

A windblown woman braces against March, trailing Scott, Dumas, Dickens and Austen.

For greater knowledge on more subjects use your library more often

A mortarboard and a pair of spectacles float over the globe - the WPA's pitch that a library card is a passport.

Curb service - Chicago Public Library

A traffic light stands in for a bookmobile: curb service, 10,000 current books, free.