American Theatre Association Records

The American Theatre Association (ATA) was formed in 1936 as the American Educational Theatre Association (AETA) by a group of privately owned theatres. Recruiting its members from the ranks of teachers, actors, students, and directors, among others, the Association acted as a theatre advocacy group, promoting theatre and theatre education in several ways. It published and disseminated materials for use in children's secondary schools, colleges and universities, and community theatres, pushed for federal funding of theatre education, promoted the touring of educational theatre groups, and worked with the armed forces installations to develop mutually beneficial theatre programs. The Association also sought to stimulate creative activity and scholarship in educational theatre and in allied fields of educational television, radio, film, and puppetry.

In 1972 the American Educational Theatre Association restructured itself under the title the American Theatre Association and Jed H. Davis became the Association's president. In 1986, the ATA dissolved.

The American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) was a yearly production of AETA/ATA and Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center.

The University and College Theatre Association (UCTA) was a division within the AETA established in 1971.