U.S. theatrical company.
It was founded in 1915 by a group of writers and artists in Provincetown, Mass., to encourage new and experimental works. Among their first productions, which were often staged in members' homes, was the first play by Eugene O'Neill , a founding member whose career was launched by the Players. In 1916 the players moved to New York's Greenwich Village. There they introduced several more of O'Neill's plays as well as works by Edna St. Vincent Millay , Susan Glaspell, Paul Green, and dozens of other playwrights. The company disbanded after the stock-market crash of 1929, though the Provincetown Playhouse has continued to serve intermittently as a theatre into the 21st century.