On July 25, 1936, after a five-night run, the audience at the Park Theatre in Bridgeport, Connecticut, applauded the closing night performance of Macbeth, produced by John Houseman and directed by Orson Welles for the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The FTP was one of five arts-related projects established during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to assist unemployed writers, actors, and artists during the Great Depression.

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare. Macbeth. Act 5, Scene 5External

It overwhelms you with its fury and its phantom splendor.

Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times. Macbeth Playbill. Bridgeport, Connecticut, July 21-25, 1936. Federal Theatre Project, 1935 to 1939. Music Division.

John Houseman came to the Federal Theatre Project from an already established career that included directing the avant-garde opera, Four Saints in Three Acts, by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson, in New York.

Welles, just twenty-one years old at the time, began his theatrical career directing Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Christopher Marlowe’s Tragical History of Dr. Faustus for the Federal Theatre Project.

Welles’ designs for the plays were characterized by the creative risk-taking that exemplified his dramatic work. His use of racially integrated casting and “alternative” settings for these masterpieces was an innovation.

For Macbeth, Welles cast African-American performers in all the roles, moved the play’s setting from Scotland to the Caribbean, and changed the witches to Haitian witch doctors.

Critics hailed the results as “startling,” “splendid,” and “colorful.” After a series of sold-out performances in Harlem, Welles’ “Voodoo Macbeth” took to the road, traveling to several cities on the East coast.