ABSTRACT
Anthropologists studying the people of the Americas recorded and preserved indigenous texts. Many did so with the hope of proving the first Americans came from Europe and were, therefore, genetically superior to Asians or Africans. The scant evidence we have of theatre in the Americas before the arrival of European colonists comes from this drive to collect linguistic evidence. The growing urban bourgeoisie at the turn of the twentieth century were keen to create a Latin American theatre tradition. There were already theatres that produced European drama and variety shows. The theatre in Quebec has developed along with Quebe's political consciousness. Early theatre, of course, consisted of a few productions of French plays, but only for the elite. By the nineteenth century, Spain began to lose its grip on its colonies in the Americas and, one by one, each nation declared independence.
