The theatre began as a children's musical touring company in 1957 and performed throughout Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, before it established itself on Woodrow Wilson Avenue in Detroit in 1963.
Settling on Woodrow Wilson in the sixties, the company became a theatre rooted in its founding ideals, standing against social issues like racism, bigotry, and vilification.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, the company steadily increased its audience turnout, counting well over 150,000 tickets sold for a 194 seat theatre.
[9] As early as their children's theatre days, the company has employed diverse casting techniques that were largely unpopular at the time.
The theatre has been known to produce shows with strong themes of social justice and change, such as The Living Text, a play about the Civil War and Reconstruction.