'None of the committee members, Shapiro observes, “had ever seen a Federal Theatre production.” Nor did they have much knowledge of theater more broadly: one of the committee members, Joe Starnes of Alabama, became an object of ridicule when he unwittingly asked if Shakespeare’s contemporary Christopher Marlowe was a communist. The Dies committee wanted to gut a program they knew almost nothing about. It seems telling that the committee’s 124-page report did not mention a single play.'
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/americas-war-on-theater/