In-School Performances

AQUILA THEATRE

Visit Website
“...A CLASSICALLY TRAINED, MODERNLY HIP TROUPE”
The New York Times
“A TRULY INNOVATIVE AND POTENT THEATRICAL ACHIEVEMENT”
The Bermuda Royal Gazette
“THE CLASSICS MADE RELEVANT WITH SUPERB ACTING AND CLEVER STAGING.”
The New Yorker
News and Events

06.02.10
Hot 8 Brass Band to be featured in new Spike Lee film for HBO
The Hot 8 Brass Band is featured in the upcoming Spike Lee film entitled "If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise."

05.24.10
Viver Brasil wins Lester Horton Dance Award
Viver Brasil recently won the Lester Horton Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in World Dance

Performance Highlights

07.30.10
Christopher O'Riley
Caramoor International Music Festival
Spanish Courtyard- Katonah, NY

08.05.10
ETHEL
Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, NY

08.28.10
Turtle Island Quartet
Waterstage - Grand Performances
Los Angeles, CA

Listen

30 Second General Radio Spot
30 Second Radio Spot for Midsummer Night's Dream
30 Second Radio Spot for Six Characters in Search of an Author

Biography

Aquila Theatre

Aquila Theatre’s mission is to make classical works accessible to the greatest number. A play becomes ‘classical’ because we recognize that after a time it transcends the original culture it was created for. It retains the power to provoke the central question of what it means to be human. As a company dedicated to the classics, we feel a responsibility to acknowledge and explore newfound classical works. Founded in London in 1991 by Peter Meineck, Aquila is now based in New York City. Aquila’s programs include:

A MAJOR ANNUAL NATIONAL TOUR: Aquila is the foremost producer of touring classical theatre in the United States, visiting 60-70 American cities per year. Aquila’s 2008/2009 Tour consisted of: Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and Homer’s The Iliad: Book One. The 2009/2010 season of Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People began with The Festival of the Aegean on Syros, Greece and the Shakespeare Festival/LA. The 2010/2011 Tour is Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. The 2011/2012 season will be Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

PRODUCTIONS IN NEW YORK CITY: Aquila is a major part of New York's theatrical landscape, producing a regular season of plays. Aquila produced Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Homer’s The Iliad: Book One Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, and Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

EDUCATION PROGRAMS: Aquila is dedicated to theatre arts education and produces three major initiatives: Workshop America, a nationwide program that provides an opportunity for people to share in the art of Aquila; Theatre Breakthrough, which brings America’s schools to the stage; and Shakespeare Leaders, an after-school program that enables inner-city students to perform the classics.

The Shakespeare Leaders program has enabled Aquila to visit Frederick Douglas Academy in Harlem, NYC and develop close mentoring relationships on a program that teaches the holistic craft of creating theatre and encompasses elements of Literacy, English Comprehension, Performance, Directing, Design, Production, Sales, Administration, and Leadership. The goal of Shakespeare Leaders is to affect positive change in students' lives by introducing them to challenging texts, providing a unique means of self expression, and sharing proven techniques in ensemble-building and team-work. Last season, at Frederick Douglas Academy in Harlem, NY Shakespeare Leaders students performed Much Ado About Nothing.

ANCIENT GREEKS/MODERNS LIVES: Aquila has been awarded a highly prestigious NEH Chairman’s Special Award for a major national humanities program, Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives: Poetry-Drama-Dialogue, traveling to 100 public libraries and art centers across America.