(1870?-1933)
Born and educated in New York City, Alice Herts found her way to her life work as a producer of children's theatre* by implementing social reforms in the city's immigrant communities. As manager of the entertainment division of the Educational Alliance of New York City, she pursued opportunities to take live theatre to children. The Children's Education Theatre program she established in 1903 can be signaled as the beginning of children's theatre in America. Her business partner and eventual husband Jacob Heniger directed productions. Although illness and financial reverses ended her Educational Theatre for Children and Young People in 1909, the impact of her work was lasting. Her ideas are fortunately preserved in her two books: Children's Educational Theatre (1911) and The Kingdom of the Child (1918).
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.