The Federal Theater Project (FTP) was established in the late 1930s by

The Federal Theater Project (FTP) was
established in the late 1930s by the United States
government. Although it existed for only four years,
at its peak the FTP employed an average of 10,000
(5) workers, operated 185 production units in 28 states,
and entertained a weekly audience of nearly half a
million people. One of the most important, though
until recently little-studied, legacies of the program
were its "Negro Units," which were dedicated to
(10) producing plays on African American subjects for
primarily African American audiences. Hundreds of
actors, directors, designers, technicians, and playwrights
were employed by as many as eighteen of these units
in cities spread throughout the United States. Defying
(15) the external forces of racism and bureaucracy, and
overcoming internal artistic and personal differences,
the people working in these units arguably came closer
than any other group of African American theater
artists had come before to founding a truly national
(20) black theater.

The creation of the FTP came on the heels of the
Harlem Renaissance, a period of intense creativity
and innovation within the African American arts
community. Thus, by the time the FTP was founded,
(25) a diverse body of thought concerning the social
function of art already existed within the African
American community. The question of what kinds of
plays the Negro Units should produce gave rise to
vigorous, sometimes heated, debates: some producers
(30) favored folk dramas exploring rural roots and culture;
others preferred urban realistic dramas depicting
contemporary dilemmas for African Americans; and
still others advocated adapting dramas written by
white playwrights for performance by African
(35) American acting troupes. These debates were
motivated in part by larger debates over whether
black theater should attempt to blend into mainstream
culture or capitalize on its difference from the cultural
mainstream; whether it should aim for the African
(40) American or the white part of its audience; and
whether it should endeavor to instruct or be content
simply to entertain. These disagreements resulted in a
wide range of productions reflecting the diverse views
and interests of the African American community.
(45) Among them was The Swing Mikado, a musical that
inverted the minstrel tradition by casting African
American performers in an ironic adaptation of a
white classic. Calling attention to the artifice of the
performers' roles, this play challenged its audience to
(50) think about what it means to assume black roles both
on and beyond the stage.

Although it did not have a long history, the FTP
provided a lifeline for the theater during the Great
Depression, a time when the performing arts in the
(55) United States faced an uncertain fate. This allowed
the Negro Units to produce dramatic art that reflected the
genuine diversity of African American artists and their
audiences nationwide.

1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) The actors, directors, designers, and playwrights who worked in the Federal Theater Project's Negro Units have recently been rediscovered by theater historians, who now rank them among the most talented and influential stage performers and producers of their day.
(B) Of all the programs created under the auspices of the United States government, the Federal Theater Project has had the most lasting effect on the African American arts community in the United States.
(C) The Federal Theater Project's Negro Units are now being recognized for the pivotal role they played in creating what was perhaps the first truly national black theater in the United States, one reflective of the diversity of views and interests of the African American community.
(D) Although the Federal Theater Project's Negro Units produced a wide variety of plays in the late 1930s, they are best known today for their highly creative productions of folk dramas.
(E) By supporting the work of the Federal Theater Project's Negro Units in the late 1930s, the U.S. government provided much needed aid for the theater during the Great Depression, a time when the arts in general had an uncertain future.

2. According to the passage, the Federal Theater Project did all of the following EXCEPT:

(A) evolve over the course of several decades
(B) operate in cities throughout the United States
(C) produce plays about African American subjects
(D) employ designers and technicians
(E) entertain large audiences weekly

3. With which one of the following statements would the author be most likely to agree?

(A) Government funding for the FTP would probably have continued beyond the late 1930s if the plays produced in the program had been more popular.
(B) The artists of the Harlem Renaissance were more polarized in their views about the social function of art than were the people working in the Negro Units.
(C) Philosophical and aesthetic disagreements among the people working in the Negro Units contributed to the diversity of those units' dramatic legacy.
(D) African American theater artists working today have equaled if not surpassed the artistic contribution made in the 1930s by the people working in the Negro Units.
(E) The urban realistic dramas produced by the Negro Units were more popular with African American audiences than folk dramas were.

4. The author refers to the Harlem Renaissance at the beginning of the second paragraph primarily in order to

(A) give an example of a successful African American artistic movement that preceded the founding of the Negro Units
(B) emphasize the contribution made by African American artists to the overall political advancement of the African American community
(C) provide a historical explanation for why the work of the Negro Units fell into obscurity
(D) establish a historical context for important artistic debates that occurred within the Negro Units
(E) prove a point about the nature of the relationship between African American culture and mainstream U.S. culture in the 1930s

5. In referring to "a truly national black theater" (lines 19- 20) the author most likely means

(A) a publicly funded performing arts center dedicated to the production of plays for African American audiences
(B) a broad-based dramatic-arts enterprise reflecting the diversity of views and tastes of African American artists and communities
(C) a federal government program established during the Great Depression to promote the dramatic arts in African American communities
(D) a canon of plays written by African American playwrights and endorsed by scholars
(E) a successful chain of black-owned playhouses spread throughout the United States

6. The passage provides the most support for inferring that the producers of the musical The Swing Mikado were among those who

(A) believed that playwrights should avoid controversial themes in their work
(B) opposed the idea that plays should instruct as well as entertain the audience
(C) favored folk dramas exploring rural roots and culture
(D) favored urban realistic dramas depicting contemporary dilemmas for African Americans
(E) advocated adapting dramas written by white playwrights for performance by African American troupes

7. Which one of the following statements, if true, most strengthens the author's claim that the African American artists working in the Negro Units came closer than any others before them to founding a truly national black theater?

(A) The majority of plays produced by black theater groups predating the Negro Units were from original scripts by African American playwrights.
(B) Before the Negro Units were founded, government funding for the dramatic arts in
African American communities was almost
nonexistent.
(C) Prior to the establishment of the Negro Units, the vast majority of dramas written by and for African Americans were produced and performed exclusively in large eastern cities.
(D) African American dramatic arts organizations founded prior to the Negro Units drew audiences of fewer than I00 people on average to any given production.
(E) Theater historians have had difficulty locating historical documents relating to the earliest activity of organized African American theater groups.