In 1921, at Fairmont State College in Fairmont, West Virginia, college theatre took root. A faculty director was hired in 1923, and The Masquers were formed. The Masquers were charged with presenting a season of 4 to 5 major productions per year for students and the general public. In 1924, The Masquers began searching for a national honorary organization to join. As there was no truly national organization, Elinor B. Watson, Robert Sloan, and Fairmont faculty director Paul F. Opp researched forming such an organization.

As a result of their research and work, a proposed national constitution was drawn up, and on August 12, 1925, the first cast of Alpha Psi Omega (drawn from The Masquers) was initated. It was then decided that each chapter was to be called a "cast", and Fairmont College became the Alpha Cast.

Since then, Alpha Psi Omega has nationally enjoyed continuous growth and, with over 550 casts, is the largest national honor society in America. Colleges and universities of recognized standing, having an established theatre program or theatre club for the purpose of producing plays, are eligible for membership.

The Delta Beta Cast at Alma College was originally comprised of students participating in both the theatre and dance programs. In the fall of 2005, a group of students rechartered the cast and completely restructured its Constitution and Bylaws, resulting in a group comprised exclusively of theatre students.

Today, the Delta Beta Cast continues to grow. New cast members are accepted once in both the Fall and Winter academic terms. Each member belongs to one of 12 family lines (one family stemming from each one of the 12 students that rechartered the group) and each family name honors a individual of significance in theatre: William Shakespeare, Sanford Meisner, Joe Jezewski, Lanphear Leekos, Harlequin, Dionysus, Stella Adler, August Strinburg, Henrik Ibsen, Laurence Olivier, Aristophanes and George Bernard Shaw.