1939: Theatre Research

Theatre Research, an organization established Nov. 1, 1939, by the Rockefeller Foundation in association with Vassar College and in cooperation with the Federal Work Projects Administration, to index and prepare for public use a special loan collection of Federal Theatre records. Hallie Flanagan, former national director of Federal Theatre, is director of the staff of Theatre Research and Emmet Lavery, playwright, is assistant director. A working library has been established in Blodgett Hall at Vassar College, where special research appraisals are now being made of the experiments and productions of the Federal Theatre.

The work of Theatre Research will cover four main fields:

(1) The preparation of a report summarizing the four years' work of Federal Theatre; (2) the publication of special bulletins describing the expansion of new techniques in design and production introduced by the Federal Theatre, among them the Living Newspaper; (3) the completion of various pieces of theatre research begun by the Federal Theatre, especially in the field of religious drama, community drama, children's theatre and modern stage lighting; (4) the indexing of Federal Theatre records so that eventually they may be available for examination by students of the theatre at any convenient center.

The designation of Vassar College as the initial center of Federal Theatre research was made at the direction of President Roosevelt. Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken, President of Vassar College, accepted the designation as a recognition of the close association of Vassar College with the Federal Theatre, which began in October 1935 when Mrs. Flanagan went from her post as director of the Experimental Theatre at Vassar to that of director of Federal Theatre.