University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Dramatic Art.

The Department of Dramatic Art was established in 1936. Prior to that, instruction in the history of theater and comparative drama was given in the Department of English. In addition to its academic instruction, the new department produced plays and supported dramatic efforts. The Carolina Playmakers, founded in 1918, became its production unit. In 1980, the Carolina Playmakers was reorganized as the PlayMakers Repertory Company, a semi-professional theatrical company. Subsequently, the Laboratory Theater, which formed about 1971, assumed the production of student plays in the department. The Carolina Dramatic Association, begun in 1922, was a cooperative program of the Department of Dramatic Art and the University Extension Division's Bureau of Community Drama. The Institute of Outdoor Drama was founded in 1963 as an affiliate of the department; its purpose was to promote the production of outdoor drama in the United States.