About the Company
Founded in 1993, American Thymele Theatre (ATT) has remained devoted to its mission, to preserving the dissemination and prominence of Hellenic culture in America, by producing plays with timeless Greek themes free-of-charge to the public. ATT has presented a unique spectrum of such works including a series of Athenian comedy classics in their original, 19th century Greek. George Kelly’s The Show-Off marked the company’s initial production, a bilingual adaptation performed at the Kraine Theater in New York and elsewhere. In 1995, ATT inaugurated its Angelos Vlachos Comedy Festival, spanning for ten years, with Vlachos’ The Grocer’s Daughter, premiered at the Frederick Loewe Theatre in New York. This production soon prompted touring to Boston and Philadelphia in 1996, followed by a New Jersey and Connecticut tour, the following year. ATT returned to Philadelphia to premiere two more Vlachos comedies for the festival, My Sober Husband and Mr. Floret’s Wife that also induced further touring. The Grocer’s Daughter had its English-language premiere in Baltimore in 1999, followed by extended tours throughout New York, including a dinner theatre engagement in 2000. ATT mounted a revival of Maxwell Anderson’s Barefoot in Athens, for the play’s 50th anniversary since its Broadway debut, at the Olympic Theatre in New York, presented as part of the 2001: Year of Socrates festivities. This particular production was extended into the following season, in daytime performances for New York City public schools. A not-for-profit entity, ATT is chartered by the State of New York and has maintained a 501(c)3 status since its inception. It has brought a variety of never-before-staged Greek theater rarities to American audiences in many nearby and distant cities and was chosen by the Cultural Olympiad Committee in presenting its popular production of The Grocer’s Daughter as part of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. ATT premiered The Needy Barrister in St. Louis, Missouri, presented along with its acclaimed production of The Grocer’s Daughter which had now become a touring favorite. This particular repertory was brought to Phoenix, Arizona and, returning to New York, ATT staged a production of Nikos Kazantzakis’ Kouros, also in daytime performances, for New York City public schools. The company presented The Petrakis Universe for the New York Public Library, under a grant from the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation that led to an encore staging at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. Reviving the company’s 19th Century Athenian One-Act Comedies series, the Federation of Hellenic Societies sponsored a staged reading of Not Qualified and A Servant Is Sought in 2016, followed by a staged reading of Mourning Does Not Become Her at the Bridge Theatre in 2018. ATT’s Spring Readings series presented workshops of plays with classical themes, Emory Wilson’s The Father of Comedy (2020), A Season in Sparta (2021), and Hit-List: Cicero (2022), and joined Leadership 100, as an honorary member of the sponsoring organizations for the 1821 Greek Revolution bicentennial in 2021. Adhering to its aspiration in producing free Greek theater for all, ATT launched its New York Euripides Summer Festival which has presented the critically-acclaimed productions of Euripides’ Rhesus (2009), Alcestis (2010), Medea (2011), Children of Hercules (2012), Hippolytus (2013), Andromache (2014), Hecuba (2015), the satyr play Cyclops (2016), The Madness of Hercules (2017), the first to be presented in contemporary staging, Suppliants (2018), Iphigenia among the Taurians and Daughters of Troy (2019), and, during the pandemic, the pioneering, digital productions of Helen (screened at Columbia University) and Electra (2020), Phoenician Maidens and Iphigenia at Aulis (2021), Ion and Orestes (2022). Before the pandemic, all New York Euripides Summer Festival productions premiered at the East River Park Amphitheatre (demolished in late 2021) and were extended to other outdoor stages that included the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater, the Jackie Robinson Bandshell, Almira Kennedy Coursey Amphitheater and, off-Broadway, at Theatre 500, the 777 Theatre and the Stage II Theatre, in addition to other, indoor venues, such as the Chernuchin Theatre, the Marilyn Monroe Theatre, Theatre 54, the Glicker-Milstein Theatre, and the Minor Latham Playhouse. ATT’s off-Broadway, filmed performance of Hippolytus from 2013, was purchased for curricular purposes by Brown University in 2022. New York Euripides Summer Festival evolved into a highly-anticipated, annual New York-based forum for culturally diverse Greek theater enthusiasts and summer tourists. After a three-year digital presentation of the festival due to the pandemic, New York Euripides Summer Festival returned to live, off-Broadway performances in 2023, in an all-indoor run at three different venues, The Actors’ Temple Theatre, the AMT Theater and the Marilyn Monroe Theatre, for the festival’s final summer season production of Bacchae, marking the completion of the festival’s goal in producing all of Euripides’ extant plays in chronological order. The year 2023 also marked American Thymele Theatre’s 30th year as a touring company.