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Mr. Ogden Reid -2 

And Mr. Robert M. Coates, discerning critic of the New Yorker, writes: "The general imaginative level of the artists (in their shows at the Federal Art Gallery, 225 West 57th Street) is so high and their technical assurance so great that one can't help feeling that the government is now getting more than it gives to the undertaking, not only in the works of art it receives but also in the wide cultural uplift thus brought to the life of the nation."

The Federal Theatre Project, more particularly with its pioneer technique in the "Living Newspaper", has been a vitalizing influence in the New York theatre.  WPA shows have not played to empty houses:  the total attendance to date at the 10,190 performances is slightly under ten million.  An additional two million New Yorkers have crowded in our public parks to enjoy WPA open air travelling shows!  Over one million people have attended WPA performances of the Gilbert and Sullivan light operas!  And of these millions of our citizens to whom the WPA has brought entertainment, 65% had never witnessed any performance by living actors.

As in art, Federal Theatre Project has stimulated a new and hitherto unknown public interest in the theatre and the commercial theatre has felt the stimulating effects in its own attendance:  When the Federal Theatre came into being only seven of the 78 managers, producers and owners in the Leage of New York Theatres were operating at a profit.  Eighteen months later the commercial theatre had twenty-three profitable theatres on Broadway, including the works of the vigorous productions of the Mercury Theatre which sprang from the WPA.

Today, the Federal Theatre has three Broadway hits playing at one time - "Prologue to Glory", "...one third of a nation..." and "Haiti".  The first has just won honorable mention in the Dramatic Critics' Circle award for the best plays of the year.

Foremost dramatic critics of New York have conceded the power and originality of Federal Theatre production.  Mr. Burns Mantle, veteran critic of the Daily News, wrote of the 4-star "Prologue to Glory":  "To me it was one of the most satisfying of a worktime life devoted to professional playgoing...If the Federal Theatre had produced no other single drama, 'Prologue to Glory' would doubly justify its history and all its struggles.  It is superbly acted."

Mr. Robert Benchley, of the New Yorker, writes:  "Once again the Federal Theatre comes to the rescue..."

John Mason Brown, of the Post, says of the Federal theatre:  "It has done a fine job in democratizing the theatre by carrying the stage into regions where playgoing has been practically unknown..."

Mr. Arthur Pollock, of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, writes:  "It has brought the theatre to life again in thousands of places where the worthy professional folk of the theatre had left it for dead.  It has made millions of people happier than they were before."

Mr. Paul Vincent Carroll, the brilliant visiting Irish author of "Shadow and Substance", writes in the New York Times:  "The most exciting and interesting thing about theatrical America is of course the Federal Theatre project and when by the mercy of God I get through with speechifying and dinners and luncheons I intend making a closer study of this great movement.  The Federal Theatre has demonstrated that there are tremendous artistic potentialities in the common people of America who never figure on the front page and always pay for their seats."

Mr. Richard Watts writes in the Herald Tribune on April 6:  "The first really important American play of the season was the Federal Theatre's revival of John Howard Lawson's 'Processional'."

Arthur Arent of the Federal Theatre was recently honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship for his distinguished editing of the Living Newspaper.

Music has been carried to the great public of this city as never before.  Almost seven million New Yorkers attended the 6,757 separate concerts given by WPA project musicians!  At the same time three and one-half million children and adults have availed themselves of WPA music courses!  Music has been carried into our schools and into our hospitals and our civic centers.  Must not the quality of our musical programs have been excellent to have commanded such a vast attendance?