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The NYS Theatre Institute was created by state legislation in 1974. Collaborating with a committed group of educators and artists, founding director Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder believed that theatre for family audiences must be of the highest quality, and that theatre can be used to make the world a better place. Today, NYSTI stands as an internationally acclaimed professional and educational regional theatre.
The Institute's four-fold mission is: 1) to produce professional theatre of the highest artistic standards for family and school audiences; 2) to use those productions to provide provocative and innovative arts in education programs; 3) to exchange theatre, culture, and humanity with the people and artists of other nations; and 4) to develop new plays and musicals for family audiences that speak clearly to a changing world.
Performers, technicians, staff, and guest artists use theatre to reach beyond the stage into the classroom, motivating students to find new interest in their daily subjects. The Institute's educational services include Pre-Show Intros and Study Guides, Inservices, inter-disciplinary classes following performances, educational outreach programs, a Theatre Arts School, summer theatre programs, and an extensive intern and educator-in-residence program. All members of NYSTI's professional staff participate in educational programs.
Highly individualized internships provide school-to-work transition experience for high-school seniors as well as college under-graduate and graduate students from schools in New York and other states, as well as from other countries. Each intern is assigned a mentor from the professional staff who guides and assists the intern. More than 1,300 interns from more than 90 colleges, high school seniors, and thirteen foreign nations have worked and studied at NYSTI.
From its inception, the Institute has maintained a strong commitment to international cultural exchange. In 1986, the Institute became the first theatre company from the United States to perform in the former Soviet Union upon resumption of cultural relations between the two countries. The company returned to Russia in 1989 and has twice hosted visits to the United States by the Moscow Musical Theatre. NYSTI also has represented its state and nation in cultural exchanges with Canada, England, France, Israel, Italy, and Jordan, including a month-long performance run in London's West End. In May 2004, NYSTI welcomed Teater Västmanland from Sweden to perform, and NYSTI toured its productions of “Born Yesterday” and “American Soup” to Sweden in September, 2005. NYSTI’s original “American Soup,” by Mary Jane Hansen will perform in Italy in July 2006.
Eight of NYSTI's premieres have recently been accepted for licensing and publication by Samuel French, Inc., the world's largest publisher of plays. Among NYSTI's count of more than THIRTY SIX premiere productions are William Gibson's “Rag Dolly,” which toured to Moscow in 1986 (a later version opened on Broadway as “Raggedy Ann); Mr. Gibson's drama “Handy Dandy;” and Paul Shyre's “Hizzoner!,” starring Tony Lo Bianco, which won five Emmy awards in a WNET/13 co-production and later played on Broadway before touring to Moscow in 1989. The New York and East Coast premiere of Jeffrey Sweet's “American Enterprise,” was nominated by the Outer Critics Circle for its 1994 John Gassner Playwriting Award and chosen for special citation in The Best Plays of 1993-1994. “Sherlock's Secret Life,” by Ed. Lange, a 1997 NYSTI premiere co-production with The Actor's Company of Pennsylvania, has performed at the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Queens Theatre in the Park. The audio book of the original cast recording of “Sherlock's Secret Life” won the 2000 Audie Award from the Audio Publishers Association in Chicago.
NYSTI's 2001-02 25th anniversary season featured FOUR premieres: “Ladies of Song;” “Magna Carta;”“Gina and the Prince of Mintz,” and staged readings of new adaptations of mysteries by Mary Higgins Clark.
NYSTI's 2002-2003 season featured two more premieres, both by playwright W. A. Frankonis: “The Killings Tale,” winner of a 2004 Audie Award, and recently published by Samuel French, Inc., and “The Circle of Christmas,” a new adaptation of Dickens' “A Christmas Carol.”
In 2004-2005, NYSTI produced two more world premieres: Susan Cooper’s novel, “King of Shadows,” adapted by Adrian Mitchell, with music by Will Severin, and “Sherlock's Legacy” by Ed. Lange.
NYSTI’s 30th Anniversary Season of 2005-06 saw two more premieres come to life on the NYSTI stage: the fully mounted family musical inspired by a Japanese myth, “The Cat, the Sun, and the Mirror” by Robert A. Anderson with music and lyrics by Edward C. Sullivan, and the staged reading of “Inalienable Rights: Denied” by Ed. Lange.
Warner Music Group awarded NYSTI $400,000 in 1996 to develop five new musicals for family audiences. The first of those was “A Tale of Cinderella” by W.A.Frankonis, Will Severin, and George David Weiss, made possible in part by funding provided by Warner Music Group and by the participation of Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. An immediate success, the award-winning show is available as an Atlantic Theatre CD or cassette and has been re-released on VHS as part of Warner Home Video's 75th Anniversary Celebration. Vocal Selections from “A Tale of Cinderella” is available from Warner Bros. Publications. The video was broadcast nationwide on PBS stations to an audience of more than 56 million TV households (half of potential US audiences). In the 2000-01 Season, “A Tale of Cinderella” toured all the major cities of New York including Buffalo, Syracuse, the Capital Region, and Manhattan.
NYSTI's latest new musical to be produced with support from the Warner Music Group is “Magna Carta,” which premiered in April 2002. This new musical is a theatrical tribute to freedom and individual courage, and is composed by the same winning duo of George David Weiss and Will Severin, with a book by Ed. Lange, author of the award-winning “Sherlock's Secret Life.”
In addition to its tour of “A Tale of Cinderella,” NYSTI has toured its education programs and performances to New York City, with productions of Institute originals “Sleeping Beauty” and “Beauty and the Beast,” and new stagings of “Narnia” and “Slow Dance on the Killing Ground.” The theatre company has also performed at the Kennedy Center, Ford's Theatre, Queens Theatre in the Park, the Fulton Opera House, and in Hawaii at the Honolulu Theatre for Youth.
NYSTI, through Family Classic Audio, began producing audio books only few years ago, and thus far has produced only eleven titles, nevertheless, the company's work has proven remarkably successful. Six titles were named Audie Award Silver Finalists, and two won the Audie Award. A fourth title was named a Golden Headphones Winner from AudioFile magazine. The CD of the multiple award-winning “A Tale of Cinderella” is another success story. Most recently, the audiobook of “The Snow Queen” earned the Benjamin Franklin Award. NYSTI's newest audiobook releases are the original cast recordings of “Miracle on 34th Street,” the 2004 Audie Award-winning mystery, “The Killings Tale,” by W. A. Frankonis, and “The Heart of Troy,” by Ed. Lange, nominated for a 2005 Audie Award. Both works include music by composer Will Severin. Adrian Mitchell’s stage adaptation of Susan Cooper’s novel “King of Shadows” with music by Will Severin was released in 2005 and has been nominated for an Audie Award. “Sherlock's Legacy,” by Ed. Lange is scheduled for release on CD in Spring 2006.