Fort Worth and Tarrant County have a great variety of theatres. A basic recognition existed among them that increased appreciation for theatre would benefit all, but no formal links nor any mechanism existed to address the theatres as a group.

Board members and the Directors of Circle, Jubilee and Stage West began to explore cooperative opportunities in 1990 and soon extended the invitation to all other live theatre groups to attend a January 1991 meeting "to pursue strategies that will build more support for and interest in good local theatre in this area." There was agreement that trading ideas and combining some efforts would be valuable and would contribute to making theatre a more accessible part of local cultural planning.

Taking stock in early '92 the League set goals in the following areas:

Promotion

Audience Development

Networking

Collaboration

By the fall of '94 the League had instituted not only its initial goals, but had completed the by-laws, received its 501(C)3, maintained a monthly schedule, defined its structure and revisited its mission. Some of the first projects were replaced by new ones, but the basics goals of the organization remained intact. In 1999 and 2004, the League revised its bylaws to prepare for the inclusion of emerging theatres in the Tarrant County area. 

Programs over the years have included:

• a monthly promotional flyer

• a shared telephone number to access current productions at all theaters

• a four-color generic display rack brochure distributed through the Convention and Visitors Bureau 

• a weekly ad in the Sunday Arts Section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

• a quarterly newsletter ˜Theatre News

• the Cast Party/Bowling party

• an annual High School Playwriting Competition (now produced by Circle Theatre)

• the College Audition Prep Clinic for high school students

• the annual LTL Awards presentation 

• the LTL website

• a monetary award  supporting the Casa Mañana Betty Buckley Award for Best Play

• support for statewide arts advocacy through membership with Texans for the Arts

• invited guests at LTL meetings to exchange ideas on cultural planning.

​

The organization is still all volunteer, run by members of the Board of Directors which consists of the primary staff person of each theatre with paid staff or Presidents of each all-volunteer theatre, plus up to twelve at-large members selected from the community. Programs come and go as the League assesses its challenges and opportunities each year.