The American Theatre Association was formed in 1936 as the American Educational Theatre Association by a group of privately owned theatres. Recruiting its members from the ranks of teachers, actors, students, and directors, among others, the Association acted as a theatre advocacy group, promoting theatre and theatre education in several ways. It published and disseminated materials for use in children's secondary schools, colleges and universities, and community theatres, pushed for federal funding of theatre education, promoted the touring of educational theatre groups, and worked with the armed forces installations to develop mutually beneficial theatre programs. The Association also sought to stimulate creative activity and scholarship in educational theatre and in allied fields of educational television, radio, film, and puppetry.

In 1972 the American Educational Theatre Association restructured itself under the title, the American Theatre Association, and Jed H. Davis became the Association's president. After earning BA, MA, and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota, Davis served briefly in the U.S. Army. Then, in 1947 he began teaching at Macalester College, followed by Michigan State, and finally, Kansas University, where he became director of children's theatre and director of University Theatre. Davis wrote several essays on theatre education for major journals and coauthored two books with Mary Jane Evans, "Theatre, Children and Youth" and "Children's Theatre: Play Production for the Child Audience." Since the 1950s, Jed Davis served actively in professional associations, including the Children's Theatre Conference in 1963 and, of course, the American Theatre Association in 1972 until retiring in 1986, the year of the ATA's dissolution.