The Little Theatre Movement and Art Theatres in the Unites States. The Theatre Guild

The movement of non-profit theatres in the USA appeared in opposition to commercialized entertaining Broadway at the beginning of the 20th century and reached its development in the 19101930s. Theatres of that tvpe were called “little”. At the end of the Great Depression and during the First World War the artistic and “little” theatres of the preceding decades almost disappeared. The fighters for the new theatre knew perfectlv well that the change in the qualitv of the American theatre was possible onlv with the transformation of its organizational basis, the exclusion of theatre's dependence on commerce. The entire movement experienced strong influence of the European art theaters. Bv the 1920s, there were alreadv about 200 similar theatres in the United States. Among the most significant creative groups of that time one should name Theatre Guild. It was founded in 1918 as a professional team on the basis of the reorganization of its amateur predecessor, the Washington Square Players. It became the first professional theatre among amateur “little” theatres. It was also the first cooperative theatre, where all its members - actors, directors and managers - were equal partners who received a minimum wage and a certain percentage of the revenues generated from the ticket sales. The theatre had a Public Council. “Guild” tried to create a permanent troupe, introduce a repertoire system and stage plays of not only the world, but also of the national drama. It was Theatre Guild that had an honor of the first productions of such plays as B. Shaw's “Heartbreak House”, “Back to Methuselah”, a number of plays by American playwrights - E. O'Neill, S. Howard, J.G. Lawson and others. In the late 1920s, at the height of the theatre's popularity, it managed to attract about 30,000 season ticket holders, build its own building, organize permanent performances in the nearby cities, and not for a long time they gathered a permanent troupe of 10 artists. By the end of the 1920s Theatre Guild moves to the position of a commercial theatre. The theatre failed to realize its hopes, as well as the potential of the permanent troupe. Having become a major theatre, it could not have prospects for the development of its artistic creativity. The main reason was the inability to achieve financial stability with a large scope of activity, incapacity for the artistic evolution of the theatre without constant material support. Since the beginning of the 1930s, the Guild has abandoned the previously proclaimed principles, more and more faithfully following Broadway practice, differing from other Broadway theatre enterprises only by greater artistic demand. The history of this theatre confirms the impossibility of creating on Broadway an art theater with a permanent troupe and a changing repertoire.

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