 After the Second World War the substantial number of amateur companies that had existed before the outbreak of hostilities reduced by two-thirds.The increasing competition from television in the 1950s and 1960s led to a need for greater professionalism in the theatre.As a result, plays by Emlyn Williams and Alun Owen and others were staged, while Welsh actors, including Richard Burton, Rachel Roberts, Donald Houston and Stanley Baker, were establishing themselves as artistic talents.