Executive Director Martin Denton's Annual Letter
Dear Friends,
I love my job, and I know how lucky I am to be able to do it.
And I have great respect for all the members of the
constituencies NYTE serves � theatre artists, readers of
nytheatre.com, and all who appreciate the value of live theatre.
Which is why I decided this year to treat you the way I�d like
to be treated: to just come right out and ask for your support,
directly and (I hope!) reasonably briefly.
The New York Theatre Experience, Inc., needs your contribution
so that we can continue to provide the services and resources
thousands of people like you have come to expect and rely upon.
Please give whatever you can afford. We�re a nonprofit
corporation, so your donation will be tax-deductible in
accordance with federal and state laws.
Let me tell what we will do with your money. NYTE highlights, nurtures,
promotes, and advances the work of thousands of indie/nonprofit theatre
practitioners making groundbreaking and foundational art in New York City.
We do this by giving these artists free space to list and explain their work
on nytheatre.com and
our other websites and on our
nytheatrecast podcast series. We do this by
reviewing more productions than any other media outlet every year. And we do
this by providing the first
publication for
worthy emerging and/or unheralded playwrights�144 of them in our first ten
years.
We give away hundreds of copies of our anthologies every
year�to students, teachers, actors, playwrights, and theatre
companies�so that the work of these playwrights we believe in so
strongly will be seen by as many people as possible. This year
we also donated some of our books to Arts Resource Transfer�s
DUCS Project, which distributes them to public institutions such
as prisons, hospitals, and libraries.
We establish relationships with artists and provide numerous
services to help them succeed. We write dozens of letters of
recommendation for individual artists and theatre companies
every year to help them acquire funding and other kinds of
recognition. We provide space on my �nytheatre
I/Good News Theatre Blog� and on our nytheatre buzz page to help nonprofit
theatres find, discuss, and implement new strategies to raise funds and
develop their work. This year we helped launch the League of Independent
Theater, and we�ve provided steady support to the New York Innovative
Theatre Foundation since it was founded five years ago.
We sponsor educational events and panels, and I participate in those
sponsored by others whenever I am asked�for example, this year, I was
honored to speak at the South Asian Diaspora Theatre Conference at the
Martin E. Segal Center at CUNY Graduate School and to lead a workshop on
theatre criticism with high school students at the first New York City EDTA
Conference. One of my favorite gigs every year is to emcee the opening
ceremonies of the New York International Fringe Festival, where I share my
hints about �How to FringeNYC� with theatergoers. The pay for all of these
activities is zero; we do all of this because as an arts service
organization it�s important that we reach out to the public.
So your donation
to NYTE�$1�$5�$10�$25�$50�$100�will help us pay for our websites and our
publications and our educational, outreach, advocacy and support programs.
It will help us provide travel reimbursements for our amazing volunteer
contributors, who review hundreds of shows each year because they know it�s
essential for artists throughout the NYC theatre community�not just those in
Manhattan, and not just those in well-financed companies�to receive
thoughtful and informed feedback about their work from their peers.
It will also help us pay for R&D, because don�t forget, we�re
a technology company. 2010 will be a year of e-books and
Kindles, iPhones and
Droids. You can count on us to use new tech to bring the works of even more
playwrights to a broader, deeper, and increasingly diverse audience, and to
come up with a whole new kind of theatre information resource designed for
mobile devices like the iPhone.
You can make your donation to NYTE by
credit card,
or you can send a check to:
The New York Theatre Experience, Inc.
P.O. Box 1606
Murray Hill Station
New York, NY 10156
Thank you in advance for your support. Have a wonderful and safe holiday
season. Email me to let me know what you think about what we�re doing here
at NYTE�I really want to hear from you.
Best regards,
Martin