The Purpose of a Labor Theatre: Industrial Democracy and the Union Theatre of Detroit, 1946-1949

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dc.contributor.advisorHildy, Franklin J.en_US
dc.contributor.authorLapinski, Margareten_US
dc.contributor.departmentTheatreen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-02T05:40:49Z
dc.date.available2024-07-02T05:40:49Z
dc.date.issued2024en_US
dc.description.abstractIn 1946, the Union Theatre of Detroit was established as a project to broadcast “labor’s” aims and achievements. Sponsored by the Educational and Recreational Departments of the UAW, the Union Theatre quickly became part of the UAW’s educational programming to help educate and politicize workers on social issues like racial discrimination. This thesis seeks to investigate the ways in which the Union Theatre labored on behalf of an industrial democratic political program that emphasized deploying both economic and political action to achieve the goals of “labor.” In addition to providing a brief history of the Union Theatre, I use methods from performance studies and theatre studies to analyze archival material and decipher the ways in which plays functioned as both recreational activities and educational opportunities for union members to rehearse the tactics and strategies of labor organizing. I argue that, post-WWII, theatre and theatricality (loosely defined as the conventions of theatre) were deployed as an organizing tool to agitate and educate union members during a period of theatre history that is characterized in theatre historiography as “politically apathetic.” In this thesis, I ask “What was the social link between the Union Theatre and institutions like the UAW?” and seek to uncover how cultural work labors in broader social and political movements like the American labor movement.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/19vs-coul
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/33043
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledTheater historyen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledLabor relationsen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledAmerican studiesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledDetroiten_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledIndustrial Democracyen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledLabor theatreen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledUnion Theatreen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledUnited Automobile Workersen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledWorkers theatreen_US
dc.titleThe Purpose of a Labor Theatre: Industrial Democracy and the Union Theatre of Detroit, 1946-1949en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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