Theatre with a Purpose: Amateur Drama in Britain 1919-1949

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Don Watson (Independent scholar) Bruce McConachie (Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA)

Theatre with a Purpose

Amateur Drama in Britain 1919-1949

Don Watson (Independent scholar), Bruce McConachie (Professor, University of Pittsburgh, USA), Claire Cochrane (University of Worcester, UK)

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English

Methuen Drama
04 September 2025

Theatre Studies; British & Irish history; Social & cultural history

Series: Cultural Histories of Theatre and Performance

This study of British amateur theatre in the inter-war period examines five different but interwoven examples of the belief, common in theatrical and educational circles at the time, that amateur drama had a purpose beyond recreation.

Amateur theatre was at the height of its popularity as a cultural practice between the wars, so that by 1939 more British people had practical experience of putting on plays than at any time before or since.

Providing an original account of the use of drama in adult education projects in deprived areas, and of amateur theatre in government-funded centres for the unemployed in the 1930s, it discusses repertoires, participation by working- class people and pioneering techniques of play-making. Amateur drama festivals and competitions were intended to raise standards and educate audiences. This book assesses their effect on play-making, and the use of innovative one-act plays to express contentious material, as well as looking at the Left Book Club Theatre Guild as an attempt to align the amateur theatre movement with anti-fascist and anti-war movements. A chapter on the Second World War rectifies the neglect of amateur theatre in war-time cultural studies, arguing that it was present and important in every aspect of war-time life.

Don Watson builds on current scholarship and makes use of archival sources, local newspapers, unpublished scripts and the records of organizations not usually associated with the theatre. His work explores the range and diversity of amateur drama between the wars and the contributions it made to British theatre.

By: Don Watson (Independent scholar)
Series edited by: Bruce McConachie (Professor University of Pittsburgh USA), Claire Cochrane (University of Worcester, UK)
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9781350232082
ISBN 10: 1350232084
Series: Cultural Histories of Theatre and Performance
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 04 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Don Watson is an independent historian based in North East England. His previous publications include Squatting in Britain 1945-1955: Housing, Politics, and Direct Action (2016) and No Justice Without A Struggle: The National Unemployed Workers’ Movement in the North East of England 1920-1940 (2014). He has been contributing to historical journals for more than thirty years.