18 Cities & Towns Collaborate to Re-create Federal Theater Project's IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE

In 1936, 18 cities and towns in the US came together under the Federal Theater Project to present productions of the dystopian, political play 'It Can't Happen Here'. The New York Times has reported that arts organizations in 18 cities across the country will come together next summer to re-create a contemporary version of the Federal Theater Project's 'It Can't Happen Here' collaboration.

The prompt is "No Place Like Home," from the 'Wizard of Oz.'

Read the full story HERE. 

On July 27, 2024, the organizations will present their way of expressing something that ties concepts of home with culture and health, including artist apprenticeships at mental health clinics in Chicago, a "theatrical showcase" including a play about mental health and healing in Tuscon, Arizona, and more. 

The initiatve was created by Lear deBessonet, who is working with Nataki Garrett and Clyde Valentin. They are the artistic directors for a program called One Nation/One Project. The initiative is called "Arts for EveryBody."

The Arts for Everybody website states:

At a moment when Americans face acute challenges to their individual and collective wellbeing, the audacious new campaign from One Nation/One Project titled Arts For EveryBody is about to prove how the arts can lead to healthier people and healthier communities. Inspired by the 1936 Federal Theatre Project where 18 cities and towns presented their own interpretations of the anti-fascist play “It Can't Happen Here,” Arts For EveryBody will bring together people and communities.  

On July 27, 2024, artists, civic leaders, and community health providers in 18 cities and towns across America will simultaneously premiere an array of large-scale participatory art projects which will draw on the sounds, styles, and stories of their communities to answer the prompt “No place like home.”  

In big cities and rural counties, hundreds of actors, muralists, poets, folk dancers, circus clowns, farmers, flower artists, skaters, cooks, architects, DJs, puppeteers, nurses, mariachi players, bamboo weavers and more will create new works that show the world where they come from. The result will be a celebration of American pluralism–of unity through diversity. From Seattle to Gainesville, from Providence to Honolulu, it will be an outpouring of local joy.

“Art, by necessity, must look different in every place, to reflect its own community,” deBessonet said. “Our projects are not exclusively theater, or even predominantly theater, but really are reflecting the unique voice and character of the people in each of these places — they are making things that only they could make because they’re making them in direct relation with the people of their place.”