Living Newspaper

Not to be confused with The Living Theatre.

Living Newspaper is a theatrical form presenting factual information on current events to a popular audience. Historically, Living Newspapers have also urged social action (both implicitly and explicitly) and reacted against naturalistic and realistic theatrical conventions in favor of the more direct, experimental techniques of agitprop theatre, including the extensive use of multimedia. The term is most often associated with the Living Newspaper productions of the Federal Theatre Project (1935–1939), a New Deal work-relief program established under the Works Progress Administration.

The Federal Theatre Project wrote and presented a number of Living Newspapers on social issues of the day, including Triple-A Plowed Under, Injunction Granted, One-Third of a Nation, Power and Spirochete. Controversy over political ideology contributed to the disbanding of the Federal Theatre Project in 1939, and a number of Living Newspaper plays already written or in development were never performed, including several that addressed race issues.

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