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Many of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) plays Paul Gagliardi analyzes in All Play and No Work feature complex portrayals of labor and work relief at a time when access to work was difficult. Gagliardi asks, what does it mean that many plays produced by the FTP celebrated forms of labor like speculation and swindling?     

All Play and No Work directly contradicts the promoted ideals of work found in American society, culture, and within the broader New Deal itself. Gagliardi shows how comedies of the Great Depression engaged questions of labor, labor history, and labor ethics. He considers the breadth of the FTP’s production history, staging plays including Ah, Wilderness!, Help Yourself, and Mississippi Rainbow.

Gagliardi examines backstage comedies, middle-class comedies, comedies of chance, and con-artist comedies that employed diverse casts and crew and contained radical economic and labor ideas. He contextualizes these plays within the ideologically complicated New Deal, showing how programs like the Social Security Act straddled progressive ideals and conservative, capitalist norms. Addressing topics including the politicization of theatrical labor and the real dangers of unchecked economic con artists, the comic plays of the FTP reveal acts of political resistance and inequality that reflected the concerns of their audiences.

A peer-reviewed journal of theatre history and scholarship published annually since 1981 by the Mid-America Theatre Conference

Theatre History Studies 2021, Vol. 40, edited by Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, marks the fortieth volume of the respected, peer-reviewed journal published by the Mid-America Theatre Conference, a leading forum for innovative scholarship in theatre and performance studies. Bringing together a diverse collection of essays from established and emerging scholars, this volume examines the intersections of theatre history, cultural memory, performance, identity, race, gender, and social change across a wide range of historical and contemporary contexts.

The volume opens with a series of studies that challenge conventional narratives of theatre history and performance. Contributors explore topics including Voltaire and Enlightenment thought, the contributions and erasure of African American artists within the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit, questions of empathy and historical consciousness in contemporary drama, and the influence of Asian aesthetics on the work of modern dance innovator Alwin Nikolais. Together, these essays demonstrate the ongoing importance of theatre history as a lens through which to understand cultural power, representation, and artistic expression.

A special section,"Witch Characters and Witchy Performance," investigates the enduring cultural fascination with witches on stage and in popular performance. Essays examine witchcraft in the works of Joanna Baillie and Shakespeare, representations of female bodies and power in Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom, the feminist dimensions of Wicked, and the immersive theatrical worlds of productions such as Sleep No More and Then She Fell. Through these studies, the collection highlights how witch figures continue to serve as powerful symbols for exploring gender, authority, resistance, and cultural imagination.

The volume also features the recipient of the Robert A. Schanke Award, recognizing outstanding scholarship presented at the Mid-America Theatre Conference. This essay examines the evolving relationship between Broadway and high school musical theatre in the 2010s, offering valuable insight into theatre education, performance culture, and the transmission of theatrical traditions to new generations.

In addition to original research articles, Theatre History Studies 2021, Vol. 40 includes scholarly book reviews, contributor notes, and discussions of recent publications in the field, making it an essential resource for researchers, educators, students, and theatre practitioners. By bringing together rigorous historical inquiry and contemporary critical perspectives, this landmark volume showcases the breadth, vitality, and continuing relevance of theatre and performance scholarship in the twenty-first century.