The Dramatic Club, a student theatrical organization, was organized in January 1916. The early dramatic clubs, the Kit Kat Klub and the Rouge and Powder Club (revived briefly as the Stage Fright Club in 1910), had been replaced by entities such as a YWCA company and the Barbara Blount Hall girls, which generally put on a theatrical evening as a benefit for a specific cause.
The Dramatic Club’s student members were assisted by Professor Ray March Merrill and (as coach and director of plays) Carolyn (Carrie) Quincey, elocution teacher at Knoxville’s Park City High School. This organization marked the beginning of the extensive theatre program on campus today. The club attempted one play a year, and the proceeds were donated to the American Red Cross and the Armenian Relief Fund. The Dramatic Club was inactive for two years and was then revived by members of Dr. Charles B. Burke’s modern drama class under a new name: Theta Alpha Phi Club. In 1923 the club was reorganized as the UT Players, which was later expanded to Tennessee Players. Highly successful plays were produced, but the effects of the Depression were too great to overcome. The students disbanded the Tennessee Players in 1935.