Federal Theatre Project

Most people know that the National Endowment for the Arts currently provides grants for theatrical productions, but did you know that the federal government once took a much more active role in funding and producing live theater?  One of the Depression-era projects of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the Federal Theatre Project:
 
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/federal-theatre-project/index.html

All told, the Project "employed more than 12,000 people within 150 regional administrative units that produced more than 2,700 stage productions."  Read all about it on this page from the Library of Congress (but don't read it on your mobile device while you're walking, or you might break a leg).