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ANTA, the Dance Panel, and Martha Graham When Eisenhower's Emergency Fund was approved in August 1954, the State Department established an interagency committee to oversee decision -making. At the head was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Robinson McIlvaine. Julius Seebach represented the USIA. The committee also consisted of representatives from the Departments of Defense, Labor, Health, and Education and from other agencies as appropriate . The State Department personnel realized that a committee of this nature was not equipped to choose artists or to handle the numerous details regarding contracts, performance spaces, programs, travel arrangements , and schedules that would require attention. A contract was therefore signed between the State Department and the American National Theater and Academy (ANTA), authorizing ANTA to serve as professional administrative agent. ANTA had been established in 1935 by Congress as a tax-exempt, self-supporting organization: The corporation shall be nonprofit and without capital stock. Its purposes shall embrace: The presentation of theatrical productions of the highest type; The stimulation of public interest in the drama as an art belonging to the theater and to literature and thereby to be enjoyed both on the stage and in the study; The advancement of interest in the drama throughout the United States of America by furthering in the production of the best plays.. ..The further development of the study of drama of the present and past in our universities, college schools, and elsewhere. The incorporation charter for ANTA, enacted by the Seventy-Fourth Congress under Public Law 199, included an impressive list of wealthy and culturally influential figures, such as the conductor Leopold Stokowski and the financiers John Hay Whitney, Otto H. Kahn, A. Conger Goodyear, and Edward M.M. Warburg."' Although the founders of the organization faithfully attended meetings , they could not agree on its goals. After the Second World War, two individuals deeply involved in theater approached ANTA with a plan for a strong, decentralized national theater. One was Robert Porterfield, a founder of Virginia's Barter Theatre. The other, Robert Breen, was the founder of the Oxford Players, a touring repertory company that he subsequently codirected with his wife, Wilva Davis; during the 1930s both 38 / ANTA, T H E D A N C E PANEL, A N D M A R T H A G R A H A M had worked with Chicago's WPA Federal Theater Project. In 1946 ANTA's Board adopted the Breen-Porterfield Plan, and Breen became executive secretary of the organization. Without taking a salary, he worked with a small group of volunteers. His apartment above the Hudson Theatre on West Forty-Fourth Street in New York City became ANTA headquarters. Breen remained with ANTA until 1951, and under his leadership the organization thrived. A National Theatre Service was established that served as a clearing-house for theater activities and resources, including job placement and counseling, guest artist lists, and sourcebooks of theaters . With ANTA support, regional theater groups in laces such as Dallas , Minneapolis, and Detroit created high quality productions. The New York Experimental Theatre, under ANTA's guidance, produced twentyfive innovative works, including Bertolt Brecht's Galileo, starring Charles Laughton. In 1949, a cooperative effort between the New York Investment Company and ANTA board members Robert Dowling and Roger Stevens, resulted in ANTA's taking over the old Guild Theatre, that now became known as the ANTA Playhouse. In 1946, at the first general meeting of the United Nations Educational , Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), an international clearing-house for theater was established. The following year, the International Theatre Institute (ITI) was created under UNESCO auspices. ANTA became the United States Center of IT1 and a member of the United States National Commission for UNESCO; it was thus well-positioned for involvement in international cultural exchange. In January 1949 ANTA put together an exhibition on American children's theater that was shown at the Children's Theater of Johannesburg. In June ANTA made possible American participation in the Hamlet Festival at Elsinore, Denmark. Through the ITI, ANTA was invited to bring its production of the Shakespeare play, directed by Robert Breen and Nat Karson for the State Theatre of Virginia. The Department of State worked out an arrangement with the United States Air Force to provide planes to transport the cast and the staff for the production. ANTA was responsible for raising the money to produce the play overseas. The official program carried blessings from President Harry S. Truman and Milton Eisenhower...

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