The DDF played a role in the construction of a national identity and a national theatre, through its insistence on retaining a bilingual mandate and fostering the writing of original plays and providing coast-to-coast training for hundreds of career-oriented actors, directors and technicians. However, it also fostered a conservative approach to theatre, favouring productions of foreign plays and discouraging the participation of politically or socially disruptive plays. But this also led to remarkable standards, and attracted loyal and fashionable audiences. By the 1950s, the social aspects of the annual competition had almost eclipsed the plays, with balls and receptions, and dinner parties in formal attire.