Acting Un-American –
Fermat’s adaptation of the testimony of Hallie Flanagan before the House Un-American Activities Committee
Cast and Crew
- Hallie Flanagan Maggie Schenk
- Martin Dies Alex Hancock
- Joe Starnes Steffen Silvis
- J. Parnell Thomas Nick Barovic-Hancock
- Harry Hopkins and others Greer DuBois
- Script Maggie Schenk and Greer DuBois
- Director Greer DuBois
- Graphic & web design Wendy Vardaman
Special thanks to Marie Schulte and the Arts + Lit Lab.
(photo of Maggie Schenk by Marie Schulte)
Acting Un-American was Fermat’s Spring 2018 workshop – a staged reading of the 1938 testimony
before the House Un-American Activities Committee of Hallie Flanagan, Director of the Federal Theatre
Project. The Project claimed to have reached 25 million Americans and was the first target of HUAC, a
congressional committee formed to root out communist and socialist subversion in all its hydra-like
forms and locations. Maggie Schenk read the part of Hallie Flanagan, the congressmen in dogged pursuit
were Alex Hancock as Martin Dies, Steffen Silvis as Joseph Starnes and Nick Barovic-Hancock as J. Parnell
Thomas. Greer Dubois directed and played the part of Harry Hopkins, among others. The workshop also
included material from Flanagan’s autobiography, Arena.
The post show talk was led by Frank Emspak, Professor Emeritus in the UW School for Workers and long
time activist in the union movement. His father, Julius Emspak, was one of the key founders of the CIO
and a national officer of the United Electrical Workers (UE). The UE was one of seven labor unions
expelled from the CIO as “communist dominated” and Julius Emspak was called before HUAC, invoked
his First Amendment rights and was imprisoned for contempt of congress.