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{ 103 } \ Disappearing Frontiers and the National Stage Placing the Portland Federal Theatre Project —ELIZABETH OSBORNE While in New York we were always moving heaven and earth to get shows open, in the West we urged restraint. HALLIE FLANAGAN, Arena Much is made of the controversies surrounding the short-lived and ill-fated Federal Theatre Project (FTP, 1935–39). Scholars often illuminate the failures and controversies of this, the only national theatre in the history of the United States. National Director Hallie Flanagan’s original vision for the FTP was a decentralized national theatre that would create quality, locally relevant theatre. When called to testify before Representative Martin Dies and the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1938–39, Flanagan stated that her dual goals were to “Give employment to needy theatre professionals in socially useful projects which will rehabilitate them, conserve their skills, and at the same time, bring to thousands of American citizens not hitherto able to afford theatre going, a planned theatrical program, national in scope, regional in emphasis, and American in democratic attitude.”1 These goals, highlighting both the local and national aspects of the program, were not confined to the urban centers .Yet much of the available FTP scholarship focuses on big-city productions such as The Swing Mikado, It Can’t Happen Here, and The Cradle Will Rock. While FTP units in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago were certainly fascinating and important examples of national theatre activities, the work of the rural units was equally worthwhile. In fact, the smaller, rural units { 104 } ELIZABETH OSBORNE that populated towns throughout the country were far more than an afterthought in the organization of the FTP; they were vital components of a flexible national theatre and serve as useful examples of the successful integration of an American national theatre as defined by the communities of which it was a part.Without the explication of the rural units, the scholar is left with a skewed perception of the impact and realized potential of the FTP, and this vitally important piece of American theatre history goes misunderstood. The FTP units in Portland, Oregon, serve as a useful case study for addressing how the FTP successfully realized Flanagan’s goals on a local level. Productions spanned a spectrum of topics and themes, focusing on national, regional, and local issues in a style that not only was drawn from the skills of local actors and directors but also spoke to local audiences. Moreover, the administration associated with the Portland unit matured, and by the time the FTP closed in 1939, state and local officials collaborated well; Flanagan repeatedly cited Portland as an ideal FTP partnership between the administrative and artistic sides of the project. Although Flanagan regularly highlighted its strengths, scholarship dedicated to the Portland FTP is all but nonexistent. I suggest that there are two major reasons for this. First, there is the challenge of the relative scarcity of archival documents. Records are scattered, missing, and incomplete in the major FTP collections at the National Archives and the Library of Congress.2 Correspondence, employee records, many production records, and some of the general administration records are simply gone in spite of specific listings in the finding aids. This is unusual in the FTP collections, even given the small size and level of productivity in Portland. The second reason for the lack of scholarship is the privileging of highbrow forms from urban centers; productions with local resonance, particularly those from the proverbial boondocks, are often ignored in favor of Broadway-style shows and the splashy controversies that persistently shadowed high-profile urban productions. In order to exhume the Portland FTP, I place it within the Western Region (Region V), document the administration and production activities that are available (particularly the role Timberline Lodge and the Paul Bunyan festival were to have played in the establishment of the FTP as a Portland institution), and finally discuss the limitations and challenges of conducting archival research in the absence of a rich archive. Squelching Squabbles: Portland and the Wild West According to Flanagan, the Western Region of the FTP was different from other parts of the country; it was “flamboyant,” “free and...

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