The Washington Square Players evolved as a reaction to the formulaic art of the theater industry. Mortimer Adler led educational reform by creating the Paideia Group. Both the Players and Adler arise from New York during the Progressive Era. Similar to the Washington Square Players' declaration to produce "art for art's sake", the Paideia Group looked at education for education's sake. This paper is a comparison of the Washington Square Players and Mortimer J. Adler, the Chairman of the Paideia Group, as nonconformists grounded in democracy, who initiated reform amidst controversy.
