The Illinois Communication and Theatre Association is almost 100 years old, but no one has written a recent and complete history of the Association. However, Marvin Kleinau (ISTA President, 1969) attempted to capture the first seventy years of the Association in an article ("A History of the Association") that appeared in the Fall, 2001, Journal of the Illinois Speech and Theatre Association. The linked version (click here) of that article has a few typos and even a few factual errors, but does an admirable job capturing many of the challenges that the Association faced in the 20th Century, as well as many of its accomplishments.

A brief look at the names of the Association:

In 1930, the association was founded as the Illinois Association of Speech Teachers (IAST).

Sometime in the 1940s the association became the Speech Association of Illinois (SAI).

Sometime in the 1950s perhaps, the association became the Illinois Speech Association (ISA).

In 1968 the association added "Theatre" to its official name to become the Illinois Speech and Theatre Association (ISTA).

In 2012 the association followed the trend of the national and regional associations, changing the term "speech" to "communication," and becoming the Illinois Communication and Theatre Association (ICTA)

In 2024, Ed Schwarz (ISTA President, 2006) became curious about why the name of the Association has changed over the years. When and why has the Association's name changed? For more on that, read "Looking Back, Looking Forward," which includes an examination of why the Association added "Theatre" to its name, and how the Association decided to replace the term "Speech" with the term "Communication" in its name.