Play Guide [1.2MB PDF] - Arizona Theatre Company

DEPRESSION
companies and stock prices quadrupled between 1921 and 1929. After the Federal Reserve
implemented higher interest rates to lower rising prices, banks and investors lost certainty
and began selling their stocks. Suddenly, between September and October 1929, stock
prices fell 33%. The ultimate day of panic selling occurred on October 24, 1929, which is
known as “Black Thursday.” The additional lack of consumers and investors forced prices
down further and as a preventative measure against bankruptcy, people sold their holdings.
After the Stock Market Crash, unemployment increased, consumer goods prices declined,
and industrial manufacturing declined 47% in the United States. The rise in unemployment
and uncertainty about the future prevented consumers from spending money and investing
in products. The Crash marked the beginning of the ten year battle against the effects of the
Great Depression.
"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for
the American people." – Franklin D. Roosevelt
The New Deal
Under the strain of the Great Depression, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned The New Deal
program in 1933, which was designed to "give a hand up,
not a hand out." This program promised to repair America
and help with poverty, unemployment, and the collapsing
American economy. The largest New Deal Agency was the
Works Progress Administration, which was created by the
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. The Works
Progress Administration (or WPA as it was commonly known)
employed millions of Americans primarily in unskilled labor Men working for the WPA
jobs. Workers constructed public buildings and roads, though
other projects included art, theatre and literacy projects. Congress ended the WPA in 1943
during World War II when unemployment concerns fell by the wayside. Prior to 1943, the
WPA was the largest employer in the country.
-written by Kelli Marino, dramaturgical intern and Jenny Bazzell, Literary Manager
WOMEN IN THE 1930s IN ST. LOUIS
Why would Amanda push so hard for Laura to get married? Though it might seem
strange in a modern context, in 1930 getting married and raising a family was the most
accepted thing a young woman could do with her life. Anything else was considered
suspicious. Women won the right to vote in 1920 but that didn’t change the strong
bias that a woman’s place was in the home and that a man should be the primary
breadwinner—even though that prejudice was a little out of step with a changing
reality. In St. Louis there were somewhere around 1200 soldiers that never came
home from World War I. With their husbands lost to the war, the need to support their
families alone forced women into the workforce in greater numbers. During the Great
The Glass Menagerie
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 12