National History Day: Colfax, EM team go to Washington D.C.

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX  —  Although the research took a significant amount of time and work, Rachel Ottinger and Alice Langby say their National History Day project was tremendous fun.

Ottinger, who is from Colfax, and Langby, who is from Elk Mound, teamed up for National History Day to present their skit on Hallie Flanagan for the national competition in Washington D.C. at the end of June.

National History Day is a non-profit educational organization based out of College Park, Maryland, offering year-long academic programs open to middle school and high school students to do research on historical topics.

Students complete projects based on their research and present those projects at regional, state and national competitions.

“My friend Alice did it last year, and she went to nationals then too. She asked me to do it with her this year,” Rachel explained.

Rachel is employed part-time at the Colfax Public Library.

Rachel and Alice are both 17 years old and are both home-schooled.

Alice became involved in National History Day because of her mother’s interest in the project.

One of her mother’s co-workers studied theater and suggested that Hallie Flanagan might be an interesting topic, Alice said.

Hallie Flanagan Davis was an American theatrical producer and director, playwright, and author who was best known as director of the Federal Theatre Project (1935 to 1939) as a part of the Works Progress Administration.

The purpose of the Federal Theatre Project was to put actors and playwrights back to work during the Great Depression and to bring live theater to people who might not have the opportunity to watch theater performances.

“(The Federal Theatre) got shut down after four years for supposedly being ‘communist’ but it did amazing things in four years,” Rachel said.

The skit for the national competition was required to be ten minutes long.

“We researched it and wrote the play, and we got some costumes from the Menomonie Theater Guild … it was a lot of information to fit into ten minutes, though. It was challenging,” Rachel said.

At the national competition in Washington D.C., “you spend a week surrounded by people excited about history … it was a really cool experience,” Alice said.

Rachel and Alice ended up playing nine people in the space of ten minutes.

What was interesting, Alice said, is that all of the congressional members who conducted the hearings on the Federal Theatre Project in the late 1930s and who were convinced that the project was “communist” had never seen any of the performances.

Federal Theatre

At one time, the Federal Theatre employed 14,000 people.

The actors, writers and directors could go in new directions and do experimental theater because they did not have to worry about making a profit, Alice said.

The Living Newspapers, she noted, were perhaps the “edgiest” part of the project.

Many brilliant artists got their start with the Federal Theatre, Alice said, such as Studs Terkel (famous for his oral histories) (Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for “The Good War”); Arthur Miller (playwright) (“Death of Salesman” and “The Crucible” being among the most famous); Orson Welles (actor, director, writer, producer) (1938 radio broadcast “The War of the Worlds” and the film “Citizen Kane” among his most famous work); and Arlene Francis (actress, television and radio host and game show panelist) (known for her regular appearances on the television game show “What’s My Line?” for 25 years).

Hallie Flanagan was put in charge of the Federal Theatre Project because of her background in theater and because she was believed to have an understanding of the American people, Alice said.

Hallie Flanagan Davis was born in August of 1890 in South Dakota and died in June of 1969 in New Jersey.

The Federal Theatre “was for the American people. Ticket prices were very low, and sometimes performances were free. They performed in parks and hospitals, places where people might not ever get to see a live theater performance otherwise,” Alice said.

Rachel and Alice competed in the regional competition in Eau Claire in March and then competed in the state competition in April in Madison before going on to Washington D.C. in June.

Theme

Each year, a new theme is selected for National History Day.

“There is a theme, and you can fit whatever you want into the theme. This year’s theme was ‘exploration, encounter, exchange,’” Rachel said.

Teams can be made up of any of a number of people.

“There are many different things you can go into. There’s individual. There’s group. You can do a paper, a presentation, a website, a documentary, an exhibit. And then there’s junior and senior divisions. We did senior group,” Rachel said.

Thousands of students participated in National History Day in Washington D.C.

At some schools, for example, all eighth graders are required to do a National History Day project.

“But by the time you get to the regionals, all of the students involved with projects really want to be there,” Alice said.

At the national competition, Alice said she tried to see as many of the projects as possible.

“The quality of the research is on par with anything you would see done professionally,” she said.

As for Rachel and Alice’s skit about Hallie Flanagan, “we had to leave out a lot of story in order to fit it into ten minutes,” Alice said.

At the national competition, they did not make it to finals.

“I think the reason we didn’t make it to finals is we went over on time. But we made the conscious decision to go over on time. Our play would not have been as good if we had cut some of the material out,” Rachel said.

“The value of doing (a project) is in doing the research. I feel better equipped to do any research project now,” Alice said.

Not that Alice was not interested in history before, because she was, but now, “it has made me way more interested in history,” she said.

When asked if she would do it again, Rachel said, “It was very fun, but it was also very intense. We spent a lot of time on the project.”

The Federal Theatre ended after witnesses before the House Committee on Un-American Activities criticized the project.

Participation

Nearly 3,000 students participated in National History Day in June to present their work related to the 2016 theme of Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History.

According to the National History Day website (www.nhd.org) “National History Day began in April 1974 on the campus of Case Western Reserve University. The idea was the brainchild of history professor David Van Tassel, who was worried about the decline of the humanities in general and history in particular in America’s schools. Van Tassel was particularly distressed by the boring rote memorization he saw in most history classrooms.  He wanted to reinvigorate the teaching and learning of history.”

Van Tassel “employed a contest format to motivate students to study the past — and engage in the art of historical inquiry. Van Tassel didn’t want a history-light spelling bee, instead he wanted students to ask provocative questions, conduct research, and analyze information to draw conclusions. He called it  ‘History Day.’ The name stuck, but the day turned into a year-long educational experience,” according to the website.

National History Day is open to students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa as well as several international affiliates.

According to the National History Day website, “more than 600,000 students from around the world competed in five categories: documentaries, exhibits, papers, performances, and websites. Less than one percent of those entries were awarded the opportunity to compete in the national finals at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest. Competitors represented the top entries from 57 affiliate members, including every state, Washington D.C., American Samoa, Guam, South Korea, South Asia, China, and Central America.”