WPA theater poster of a play about Pinocchio. Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village, he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamed of becoming a real boy. In the depression of the 1930's a federal stimulus stimulus program was created, the WPA. The Works Projects Administration (WPA) funded theaters, art and inspired lots of classic reminders of a wounded USA struggling colorfully to come out of the Depression.