 Today's community theater may be also seen as an outgrowth of the Little Theatre Movement.By encouraging freedom of expression, staging the works of talented young writers, and choosing plays solely on the basis of artistic merit, the little theatres provided a valuable early opportunity for such playwrights as Eugene O'Neill, George S. Kaufman, Elmer Rice, Maxwell Anderson and Robert E. Sherwood.The 1920s was one of the most critical periods in the United States for the showing of foreign films.