Editing Works Progress Administration (section)

====Federal Theatre Project====
{{main|Federal Theatre Project}}
In 1929, Broadway alone had employed upwards of 25,000 workers, onstage and backstage; in 1933, only 4,000 still had jobs. The Actors' Dinner Club and the Actors' Betterment Association were giving out free meals every day.  Every theatrical district in the country suffered as audiences dwindled.  The New Deal project was directed by playwright [[Hallie Flanagan]], and employed 12,700 performers and staff at its peak. They presented more than 1,000 performances each month to almost one&nbsp;million people, produced 1,200 plays in the four years it was established, and introduced 100 new playwrights. Many performers later became successful in Hollywood including [[Orson Welles]], [[John Houseman]], [[Burt Lancaster]], [[Joseph Cotten]], [[Canada Lee]], [[Will Geer]], [[Joseph Losey]], [[Virgil Thomson]], [[Nicholas Ray]], [[E.G. Marshall]] and [[Sidney Lumet]]. The Federal Theatre Project was the first project to end; it was terminated in June 1939 after Congress zeroed out the funding.<ref name="Adams 1995" /><ref>Susan Quinn, ''The Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times'' (2008) pp. 62, 280.</ref>