The theatrical mask is of ancient origin. The modernist theatre offers only occasional examples when the mask is integral to the production, notably in Eugene O'Neill's The Great God Brown. Robert Edmond Jones also used masks to good scenic effect in Macbeth (1921) and as costume pieces in O'Neill's The Hairy Ape. W. T. Benda was the supreme mask-maker in New York.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.