ABSTRACT
Like many theatrical innovations in the western hemisphere, theatre for young audiences as an art form in the Americas - as in the rest of the world - began in the United States, specifically with a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest at Alice Minnie Herts's Children's Educational Theatre in New York City in 1903. This company, which inspired similar groups in other US cities, had primarily a socio-pedagogic mission rather than an artistic one. Its aim was to teach English to immigrant children and to encourage them to establish contact with other segments of the population so that they could be absorbed quickly into US society.
