Aquila Theatre

Aquila's mission is to bring the greatest works to the greatest number. We believe passionately that everyone should be given the opportunity to engage with classical drama of the highest quality at an affordable price right in their own community, experience art from other places and exchange ideas. We re-examine what constitutes a classical work and, in so doing, seek to expand the canon. We endeavor to create bold reinterpretations of classical plays for contemporary audiences that free the spirit of the original work and recreate the excitement of the live performance.

Aquila adapts and produces approximately three new works per year, presenting these works in New York City and touring them annually to 50-60 venues through the USA, reaching many underserved urban and rural communities. Aquila provides extensive educational programming throughout its tour via its Theatre Breakthrough and Workshop America programs, and in New York City via its Shakespeare Leaders program, which gives at-risk teenagers in Harlem the opportunity to succeed vocationally and academically by reading, understanding and performing Shakespeare. Aquila is also well known for its innovative humanities and arts based public programs, including the NEH Chairman's Special award-winning program, Ancient Greeks Modern Lives, and its current NEH funded program, The Warrior Chorus, a national initiative that trains veterans to present innovative public programs based on ancient literature.

Aquila maintains a small office with four full time personnel and a number of seasonal and part-time personnel, all with strong technical and artistic backgrounds and skills. Aquila's Executive Artistic Director, Desiree Sanchez, has directed Aquila's touring shows since Aquila's 2010/2011 touring season, including “Romeo and Juliet", “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", “The Tempest" and “Wuthering Heights", “Twelfth Night" and “Fahrenheit 451". She has additionally adapted and directed “A Female Philoctetes" at BAM Fisher's Hillman Studio and the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens and “Herakles" at BAM, the Festival of the Aegean in Syros, Greece and the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, and created Aquila's adaptations of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and “Wuthering Heights". Desiree had a 20-year dancing career including working as a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and has also taught at Long Island University as a visiting associate professor of dance and has a Certificate of Movement Therapy from The New School. Aquila Founding Director, Peter Meineck, is Professor of Classics in the Modern World at New York University where he specializes in ancient performance and the application of cognitive science to the study of the ancient world. He has published numerous translations of Greek plays and has produced and/or directed more than 50 professional productions of classic drama. He has received significant grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for devising and directing the groundbreaking public programs, including The Warrior Chorus, You/Stories, and Ancient Greeks/Modern Lives (Chairman's Special Award). His latest book is “Combat Trauma and the Ancient Greeks", published by Palgrave/Macmillan. Aquila is represented by Baylin Artists Management and is Professional Company in Residence at New York University's Center for Ancient Studies.

For 25 years, Aquila has been one of America's foremost touring classical theatre companies. In 2015/2016, Aquila traveled to 63 communities in 32 states with productions of “Romeo and Juliet" and “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," providing over 90 educational activities and visiting such diverse locations as Maine and Missouri, New Hampshire and New Mexico. Aquila additionally performed for three weeks in New York City at the GK Arts Center. Over 50,000 audience members enjoyed Aquila's performances in 2015/16. Aquila's Shakespeare Leaders Program completed its tenth program year and, in 2015/16, Aquila launched The Warrior Chorus Program, Aquila's fourth in a series of NEH funded multi-year humanities programs stretching back to 2009, which trains Veterans in New York City, NY, Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas, to present programming that connects the modern experience of war and home coming with stories from the ancient world.

Aquila continues to offer large tours, even as touring gets increasingly expensive, finding itself as one of the last remaining options for far flung communities hoping to experience professional classical theatre. It is our goal to continue to tour in this way, and to find funding which will allow our company to continue to do residencies with schools in underserved communities around the country. We have built our reputation on touring Shakespeare and other works and by performing high quality Greek drama in New York, and plan to similarly tour Greek drama nationally starting in 2017 with our new work, “The Trojan War: Our Warrior Chorus." Aquila would like to expand its annual theatrical offerings in NYC, and is working to secure funding to add a second campus to the Shakespeare Leaders Program. Aquila continues to look for new ways to serve the veteran population, and to incorporate film and interactive media into its programming.