Sheldon Cheney's Theatre Arts Magazine Promoting a Modern American Theatre, 1916-1921

In the early decades of the 20th century, Sheldon Cheney was American theatre's zealous missionary for modernism. In 1916, Cheney founded Theatre Arts Magazine in Detroit with the intent to foster and support a "renaissance" in America. Through this publication, Cheney gave voice to scores of "little theatres"-groups around the country with artistic aspirations and local commitment that would become the models for the American regional theatre movement later in the century.

DeAnna M. Toten Beard is associate professor and head of graduate studies in the Department of Theatre Arts at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.