moved to scene seven. Blitzstein borrowed from a number of his other earlier works as well, which diminishes the common notion that Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler were undue influences. Blitzstein objected to the terms operetta and musical comedy, and deliberately called the work an opera—a form in which drama and music have "a continuous and serious mutual relation". Blitzstein said he wrote the reduced score "at white heat" over a five-week period after his wife, novelist Eva Goldbeck, died in May 1936. The drafted short score was completed September 2, 1936. Blitzstein signed with the William Morris Agency and began auditioning The Cradle Will Rock in one-man shows in the homes of New York producers including Herman Shumlin, Harold Clurman for the Group Theatre, Charles Friedman for the Theatre Union, and Martin Gabel. In the fall of 1936, Blitzstein attended a performance of the Federal Theatre Project 891 farce Horse Eats Hat and went backstage to meet the show's writer-director, 21-year-old Orson Welles. He found a chance to play his opera for Welles, who was won over by Blitzstein's enthusiasm and endearing faith in his unproduced musical. A deep friendship began between them. Welles thought about directing The Cradle Will Rock for the Theatre Guild, which was a long shot; and he was set to direct it for the Actors Repertory Company, which optioned the work but later had to withdraw from the agreement for lack of finances. Rivalries and resentments were always in play between Welles and John Houseman, producer of Federal Theatre Project 891, as Houseman frankly expressed in his memoirs: I remember listening jealously, with an ill-concealed sense of rejection, to Orson's enthusiastic comments about the piece (which I had not heard) and to his ideas for casting and staging it, which he elaborated for my annoyance. ... So things stood in March 1937, when, in the midst of our doldrums and as part of the complicated game of one-upmanship that Orson and I were constantly playing together, I suggested one night in his dressing room that if I were ever invited to hear Marc's work, I might conceivably find it suitable for production at the Maxine Elliott for Project 891. Welles arranged for Blitzstein to play his opera through for him, and Houseman was convinced that it should be presented by the Federal Theatre Project. That view was supported at the highest level. Hallie Flanagan,