American National Theatre and Academy

American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA), organization founded in 1935 under a charter as ‘a people's project, organized and conducted in their interest, free from commercialism, but with the firm intent of being as far as possible self-supporting’. The existence of the Federal Theatre Project and the outbreak of the Second World War made it difficult to raise money privately, but in 1945 the Board of Directors was reorganized to include leading theatre people and the heads of such organizations as American Actors' Equity. In 1948 ANTA became the US Centre of the International Theatre Institute and two years later it acquired the Guild Theatre as its headquarters (see VIRGINIA THEATRE). In 1963, pending the completion of the Lincoln Center, ANTA was responsible for the erection of a temporary structure, the Washington Square Theatre, to house the Lincoln Center repertory company. ANTA joined forces in 1983 with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in order to establish a national theatre in Washington, DC. Since the move to Washington, the organization has been dormant. The International Theatre Institute/US is now located on West 42nd Street.