Community theatre represents the majority of theatres in the United States, including community playhouses and university and college programs. Although the term "community theatre" has disparate meanings the term can be applied generally to theatres—whether professional or not—that draw from their communities. The history of community theatre offers a unique perspective on the struggles between artistic endeavors and commercial profit in theatrical productions. While once a product of a movement to improve the artistic quality of theatrical productions, by the end of the twentieth century community theatre had become a venue more for community participation in the arts than a fertile source of avant-garde theatrical productions.

The roots of community theatre can be traced to the "Little Theatre" movement that started in the 1910s. The movement came as a reaction to the monopolistic "Syndicate" theatre system as well as an attempt to join the...