Best was a lecturer on the drama circuit. She was the founder of the Pilgrim Players of the First Congregational Church of Evanston (1918) and a pioneer of using drama in the church. She was a founding member of the Drama League of America in 1910 (along with Alice Riley and other women), and acted as Vice-President of Drama Club of Evanston in 1910 (of which the DLA grew out of). The purpose of the Drama League was to uplift theater through high-art plays. Within 2 years of the Drama League’s foundation, it opened up clubs in 31 states.
Significance
The Drama League of America started as a woman’s club that attempted to pursue reform in theatre, ensuring that the audience was viewing high-quality, appropriate shows. The clubs identified and promoted shows they found “worthwhile” and did not support those that were deemed inappropriate. The League had branches all over the United States and exemplified what was going on with many women’s clubs at the time – domestic feminism, or attempts at moral and public reform that used motherhood and the home/family as driving forces for this social change. In the Drama Club’s example, this public group was to influence particular social norms and preserve the family unit by ensuring that the children (and others) were viewing high-quality, moral shows. Further, they lobbied against shows on Sundays. Though beginning as a club representing this woman’s movement of moral reform, it quickly gained male leaders, probably in an attempt to prove its legitimacy to the country, as women were not considered able to produce or understand high-level theater. Nonetheless, the club was influential through its highly-circulated publications including plays that children could act, or more significantly its bulletins that promoted particular plays. It created seminars that provided members with the skills and training needed to identify and produce these morally appropriate plays, and held a National Drama Week that raised awareness of the influence of drama on public life.