Composing ourselves

"When movies replaced theatre as popular entertainment in the years 1910-20, the world of live drama was wide open for reform. American advocates and practitioners founded theatres in a spirit of anticommercialism, seeking to develop an American audience for serious theatre, mounting plays in what would today be called "alternative places," and uniting for the cause an eclectic group of professors, social workers, members of women's clubs, bohemians, artists, students, and immigrants. This rebellion, called the Little Theatre movement, also prompted and promoted the college theatre major, the…