Plays and Players Theatre, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of the oldest professional theater companies in the United States, founded in 1911. The theater building was designed and constructed in 1912 by Philadelphia architect as a dramatic school, but soon was used as a theater for Broadway try-outs, known as the Playhouse. The theater company Plays and Players bought the building in 1922 and has performed there ever since. Murals were added in 1923 by the American artist Edith Emerson.