The Theatre Guild formed in 1938 alongside a number of local Australian theatre groups aiming to develop intellectual and experimental theatre, and in particular Australian theatre.^[4] In the context of acclaimed international university theatre groups, including the Dramatic Societies at Oxford and Cambridge, its academic founders believed that universities "had a responsibility to support serious drama".^[4] In its early days, it interspersed its challenging material with less challenging works, in attempting to both meet its founding mandate and maintain a degree of mainstream currency.^[5]

In the 1960s, the Guild hit headlines^[6] when it was caught in the midst of a dispute between Patrick White and the Board of Governors of the Adelaide Festival over the premiering of the former's first published play, The Ham Funeral.^[7][8][9] The Ham Funeral was rejected from inclusion in the Festival, as it was deemed too ‘difficult’^[10] for audiences by the Board of Governors – following this 'controversial'^[9][10] announcement, the Guild's chairman Dr. Harry Medlin received a copy of the script, and he insisted that it be incorporated into the Theatre Guild's 1961 season.^[7][11] After a furore of national significance, the performance at the University of Adelaide was well received by critics and audiences alike,^[12] perhaps partially owing to an underdog appeal. In David Marr's biography of White, Patrick White: A Life, Australian critic Geoffrey Dutton said of The Ham Funeral that: "[p]erhaps there was among the audience the thought that a reactionary Establishment was being beaten on its own ground, that the evening was going to be a triumph of the imagination over mediocrity. So it was."^[13]

White's next two plays, The Season at Sarsaparilla (1962) and Night On Bald Mountain (1964), were also performed by the Guild in the wake of The Ham Funeral’s success.^[14] In 1973, White became the only laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature to receive the prize while an Australian citizen.^[15] In 2009, The Season at Sarsaparilla was performed by the Sydney Theatre Company;^[16] ironically, in 2012, the State Theatre Company performed The Ham Funeral as a part of the Festival to mark its half centenary.^[10]

Peter Goers, known for hosting The Evening Show on 891 ABC Adelaide, was Artistic Director of the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild from 1981 to 1984.^[17] Chris Drummond, who has been the Artistic Director of Brink Productions since the inauguration of the position in 2004,^[18] was Director-in-Residence of the Guild in 1996.^[19] Edwin Kemp Attrill, who was the founder and Artistic Director of ActNow Theatre, was the last Artistic Director of The Guild from 2011-2012.^[20]

Most of the performances are in the Little Theatre.^[21]

• Theatre Guild website
• List of plays performed by the Theatre Guild