A Call for a New Federal Theatre Project
Imagine a subsidized, socially-conscious theatre that transcends class and geography. For a brief moment in American history, this was reality. The 1935-1939 Federal Theatre Project's (FTP) ideals, achievements, and contradictions serve as a starting point for the AU Theatre/Musical Theatre Program’s 2021 Senior Capstone. This company of writers, directors, actors, designers, dramaturgs, and musicians have devised and produced performances of works from and inspired by the FTP, along with a selection of companion research projects, inviting audiences to delve into uncanny resonances between the FTP and the immediate present.
The Return to Africa as Portrayed in Modern Media: Big White Fog to Black Is King.
Curated by Edmée Marie Faal
With movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement—and the more recent iteration including the “We See You White American Theatre” campaign—it is hard to ignore the call for diversification in our methods of storytelling. Often discussed in regards to the Black American narrative are tropes such as the “American dream” and the idea of a “return to Africa.” Both of these ideas raise important questions of security and success. The “return to Africa” trope is occasionally used as a racially biased derogatory attack however, it is also used amongst the Black diaspora as a means of reclamation and connection. Black America’s history is so tumultuous and disrupted that it makes it extremely difficult for Black Americans to “return to Africa,” literally, spiritually, and figuratively. Thus Black America creates its own culture and history. Yet, the yearn for historical connections never entirely dissipates, and thus you have various portrayals of the “return to Africa” narrative in art and media. In this manner, art can fill in the severed connections and ancestry within the Black diaspora. This project is a virtually explorable timeline of various “return to Africa” narratives portrayed in the media starting from 1930.
A Living Newspaper Project: “when a crisis hits home”.
Through this project for our theatre capstone, inspired by Living Newspapers like One Third of a Nation, we wanted to talk to American University students and alumni to explore how the nation has failed the people who are about to become the nation and how young people can be impacted by housing and eviction.