Catharine Sargent Huntington (1887-1987) was an American actress, director, producer, and activist. A leader in New England’s Little Theater Movement, she founded and managed several theater companies in Boston and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts on December 29, 1887, she was the only daughter of Lilly St. Agnam Barrett Huntington and Reverend George Putnam Huntington. Huntington graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College in 1911 and taught English and theater at the Westover School in Middlebury Connecticut. During World War I, she left her job to serve as the Radcliffe College representative to the American troops in France. After the war, she continued her acting career on the French Riviera.

Huntington co-founded the Boston Stage Society in 1922, where she made her directorial debut directing a play by Anton Chekhov. Between 1927-1930, she served as the dramatic coach at the Allied Arts Center where a group of Black artists produced original plays. From 1931-1935, Huntington was a member of the management and producing company of Mr. Punch’s Workshop, a travelling puppet theater where she produced plays including Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Alice in Wonderland, and Little Flowers of St. Francis. Together with Edwin Petett and Virginia Thomas, Huntington established the New England Repertory Theatre on Joy Street in 1938. The company performed in Boston in the winter and in Provincetown in the summer, at the Provincetown Playhouse on the Wharf. Huntington owned the Playhouse from 1940 to 1973. During these years she produced 139 plays, including 41 by Eugene O’Neill. Huntington was a strong supporter of O'Neill and one of the few theater owners at that time to produce his work. Throughout her career Huntington was also active in several local theaters, including the Brattle and the Peabody Playhouse, and was one of the founders of the Poets’ Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1965, Huntington received the Rodgers and Hammerstein Award for her contribution to American theater in the Boston area.

In addition to her work in the theater, Catharine Sargent Huntington was also a social justice activist. In August 1927, she was arrested outside the State House in Boston for protesting the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti and served as a member of the Sacco-Vanzetti Memorial Committee. Catharine Sargent Huntington died in Boston at Sherrill House, on February 27, 1987.