“The
Living Newspaper is a dramatization of a problem – composed in greater or
lesser extent of many news events, all bearing on the one subject and
interlarded with typical but non-factual representations of the effect of these
news events on the people to whom the problem is of great importance.”
Arthur Arent
Arthur
Arent is the attributed playwright of One-Third
of a Nation, one of the Federal Theatre Project’s Living Newspaper
productions. Arent managed, edited, and contributed
to the writing of several Living Newspaper scripts. The first of these, Ethiopia, was censored for political
material and was never produced by the FTP.
Triple-A Plowed Under (1936),
which examined social and political issues affecting farmers during the
Depression, was the first successful Living Newspaper production, and Arent is
listed in the Internet Broadway Database as one of fifteen dramatists who
drafted the script. The next Living
Newspaper project on which Arent collaborated was Injunction Granted
(1936), a controversial and searing send-up of business magnates which
portrayed them in opposition to labor unions. Arent took a more significant
editorial role on Power
(1937), which argued for affordable energy for the poor and successfully
demonstrated support for government programs such as the Tennessee Valley
Authority while offering social commentary and encouraging change. This Living Newspaper was well-received and
was adapted for touring the country. One-Third
of a Nation (1938), which called for housing reform while illustrating the
dangers inherent in tenant housing slums, was the most successful of the Living
Newspapers, with 237 performances in New York followed by a number of revivals
in major cities.
Arent’s success with the
Living Newspapers allowed him to pursue other projects which also addressed
working class concerns, such as Pins and
Needles (1937). This musical revue
was commissioned by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and
was performed on Broadway by union members. After receiving a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 1938, Arent travelled to Europe, where he originally aimed to
create an anti-war Living Newspaper but ultimately decided to collaborate on an
enlistment film for the French. His career continued to consist of documentary
scriptwriting for a number of groups, including the U.S. Office of War
Information during WWII. It was during this time that he penned It’s Up to You (1943) for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. This documentary
play, produced by Elia Kazan, embarked on a nationwide tour under USDA
sponsorship.
After the war years, Arent’s career consisted of scriptwriting for radio
theatre and television programs such as Cavalcade of America (1944-1949), Theatre Guild on
the Air (1950s), The
United States Steel Hour (1953-1955), and several Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptations.
Even after his 1958 retirement from scriptwriting, Arent authored the
novels Gravedigger’s Funeral (1967) and The
Laying on of Hands (1969).
Throughout his life and until his death in 1972, Arent
sought to improve society by writing scripts and documentaries which addressed
the problems of the people, offered social commentary, and inspired a demand
for change.
Further Reading:
Liberty
Deferred and Other Living Newspapers of the 1930s,
edited by Lorraine Brown
Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a
Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times
by Susan Quinn
New Deal Theater: The Vernacular
Tradition in American Political Theater by Ilka Saal
Arent, Arthur. “Ethiopia: The First ‘Living
Newspaper.’” Educational Theatre Journal
20, No. 1 (1968): 15-31.
Goldman, Arnold. “Life and Death of the Living
Newspaper Unit.” Theatre Quarterly
111, No. 9 (1973): 72.
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