TheTheatre Guild is atheatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 byLawrence Langner,Philip Moeller,Helen Westley^[1] andTheresa Helburn. Langner's wife,Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of theWashington Square Players.^[2]

Its original purpose was to produce non-commercial works byAmerican and foreignplaywrights. It differed from other theaters at the time in that its board of directors shared the responsibility of choosing plays, management, and production.^[3] The Theatre Guild contributed greatly to the success ofBroadway from the 1920s throughout the 1970s.

The Guild has produced a total of 228 plays on Broadway, including 18 byGeorge Bernard Shaw and seven byEugene O'Neill. Other major playwrights introduced to theatre-going Americans includeRobert E. Sherwood,Maxwell Anderson,Sidney Howard,William Saroyan, andPhilip Barry. In the field ofmusical theatre, the Guild has promoted works byRichard Rodgers, teamed with bothLorenz Hart andOscar Hammerstein II,George andIra Gershwin,Jule Styne, andMeredith Willson, all of which have become classics.

The Guild's 1930 production ofRoar, China! wasBroadway's first play with a majority Asian cast.^[4]: 237

Warren Caro served as the organization's executive director from 1946 through 1967.^[5] Under PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, the Guild was engaged to assemble a U.S. theatre company, headed byHelen Hayes, to tour the capitals ofEurope andSouth America with works byTennessee Williams,Thornton Wilder, andWilliam Gibson.^[6]

In 1968, the Guild became involved in the travel field by taking 25 of its subscribers to European capitals to see plays. In 1975, it instituted its Theatre At Sea program with a 17-day cruise aboard theRotterdam with Hayes andCyril Ritchard. Since then they have hosted more than thirty cruises, each with seven or eight performers. Among them have beenAlan Arkin,Zoe Caldwell,Anne Jackson,Cherry Jones,Richard Kiley,Eartha Kitt,Patricia Neal,Lynn Redgrave,Gena Rowlands,Jean Stapleton,Eli Wallach, andLee Roy Reams, who served as the program's resident director.

The last Broadway play produced by The Theatre Guild wasState Fair in 1996.^[7]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTheatre Guild.

• Theatre Guild at theInternet Broadway Database
• Encyclopædia Britannica entry
• Finding Aid to the Theresa Helburn Theatre Guild Collection, Bryn Mawr CollegeArchived 2018-02-16 at theWayback Machine
• Theatre Guild records, 1949-1952, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Theatre Guild technical drawings and other production materials, circa 1925-1953, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Sara Greenspan Theatre Guild files, 1925-1969, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Theatre Guild Archive., Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

• Broadway theatre
• Guilds in the United States
• Special Tony Award recipients
• Defunct theatre companies in New York City

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
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