The National Vaudeville Artists (NVA) was a union organized by Edward Albee, the most powerful man in theatre and vaudeville during the first quarter of the 20th century.  He was also the adoptive grandfather of the playwright Edward Albee.  Benjamin Franklin Keith and Albee formed the Vaudeville Managers Association (VMA) in 1900 as a way of ending bidding for popular vaudeville acts, as well as eliminating competition between managers for the same audiences.  The VMA had a stranglehold on the industry, which resulted in the formation of the White Rats, an organization of performers who went on strike to abolish some of the VMA’s dictates.  The group was granted a…