By Nathan Duke
The city’s only bilingual Hispanic theater company, based in Sunnyside, was one of six citywide institutions and individuals whom Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented with his annual awards for arts and culture at Astoria’s Frank Sinatra School of the Arts last week.
Thalia Spanish Theatre, at 41-17 Greenpoint Ave., was the borough’s sole institution to win a 2009 Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture during an Oct. 6 ceremony at the Frank Sinatra school on 35th Avenue in Astoria.
Kathy Giaimo, administrative director for the theater, said the award was a validation of the site’s significance to the borough.
“It’s a stamp of approval,” she said. “We don’t just reach a specialized audience, we reach everyone. We’ve been the only bilingual theater in the borough for all this time and we still are. This is a tribute to our artistic excellence and staying power.”
The theater was established in 1977 and began providing performances in both Spanish and English. Thalia presents programs for numerous Hispanic cultures, including Mexican, Colombian, Peruvian, Spanish and Venezuelan.
A typical season at the theater will include a play by one Hispanic author that is performed twice a week in both English and Spanish, using the same cast in each show. The theater, funded through the National Endowment for the Arts, also hosts Hispanic folkloric programs, flamenco dance shows, live music by a variety of acts, an annual tango musical, bilingual children’s acting workshops, spring concerts and an outdoor festival in June.
This year the theater will present a musical based on the work of tango composer Astor Piazzolla and author Jose Luis Borges in January as well as a series of concerts in the spring and a workshop for young actors.
“We cram in a lot of activities here,” Giaimo said. “You get the bang for your buck.”
She said Hispanics make up only an estimated 50 percent of the theater’s audience and that its performances draw people from all over the five boroughs.
The mayor’s award honored the theater for “its more than 150 innovative productions and education programs” during the past 32 years, which has “highlighted the richness of Hispanic culture.”
At last week’s ceremony, Bloomberg presented the 2009 New York City Handel Medallion, the city’s highest award for achievement in the arts, to Jessye Norman, whose career has included opera stagings, new music collaborations with varying artists and, most recently, her work as curator and director for HONOR!, a collaboration with Carnegie Hall that celebrated African-American contributions to the world’s “cultural mosaic.”
Other honorees at the ceremony included the Big Apple Circus, a circus program tailored to disabled children and at-risk youth, Principal Jaynemarie Capetanakis for her work instituting “high-quality” arts education at Brooklyn’s PS 69, Chinese dance company founder H.T. Chen, Staten Island composer Vernon Reid and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which supports city jazz, dance and theater artists.
“Our artists and cultural groups help make New York City a great place to live, learn and work and a destination for ambitious and creative people from across the world,” the mayor said.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
