American National Theater and Academy

The American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA) is a non-profit theatre producer and training organization that was established in 1935 to be the official United States national theatre that would be an alternative to the for-profit Broadway houses of the day.

The ANTA, which by law was to be self-sustaining, sponsored touring companies of numerous shows to foreign counties in the post-World War II in the 1940s and 1950s, owned the ANTA Theatre on Broadway, played an important role in the establishment of the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center, was the main membership organization for regional theatre in the U.S. before ultimately having a greatly diminished role in the 1980s. Today as an entity its main focus is the National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

It was established by Congress in 1935 at the same time as the Federal Theatre Project. Its mission was to set up a theatre for the whole country. It sponsored architectural contests to build the theatre but its mission was overshadowed the controversy enveloping the Federal Theatre which some considered too liberal.

The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code.

After World War II, it reorganized and initially sponsored shows that U.S. shows that toured abroad.

In 1950 it bought the Broadway theatre Guild Hall which it renamed the ANTA Theatre. President Harry S. Truman dedicated the rechristened theatre. The ANTA, under chairman Robert W. Dowling, announced plans to use the theatre bring regional theatre productions into New York City.

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