The ANTA, which by law was to be self-sustaining, sponsored touring companies of numerous shows to foreign countries in the post-World War II in the 1940s and 1950s, owned the ANTA Theatre on Broadway, played an important role in the establishment of the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center, was the main membership organization for regional theatre in the U.S. before ultimately having a greatly diminished role in the 1980s.
Today as an entity its main focus is the National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
After World War II, it reorganized and initially sponsored U.S. shows that toured abroad.
In 1955, under the leadership of Richard Aldrich, Warren Caro, and John Shubert, the ANTA announced the "Forty Theatre Circuit Plan" involving the 40 largest regional theatres across the country stating the "ANTA's primary task is to bring the best plays, interpreted by the best actors, at minimum cost to the nation."
In fact the board consisted largely of New York City theatre owners.