How did Orson Welles work with John Houseman in the 1930s?

Orson Welles and producer John Houseman formed a prolific creative partnership in the 1930s, collaborating on several landmark theatrical and radio projects.

Their work together included:

• Federal Theatre Project: In 1936, they mounted productions for the Works Progress Administration, most notably an all-Black version of Macbeth set in Haiti. They also produced Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and the politically charged musical The Cradle Will Rock, which they famously staged from the audience after the theater was shut down by authorities.1
• Mercury Theatre: In 1937, the pair founded the Mercury Theatre, producing a modern-dress version of Julius Caesar and the comedy Too Much Johnson, for which Welles filmed short silent sequences.1
• Radio: They extended their collaboration to the airwaves, notably with the Mercury Theatre on the Air. Their 1938 adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds became legendary for its realistic, news-style presentation.12

Would you like to know more about their specific contributions to the Mercury Theatre?