History
We were established in Sunnyside, Queens by Cuban actress/director Silvia Brito, who tirelessly built the theatre's reputation for artistic and managerial excellence. When Ms. Brito retired in 1999, Thalia Spanish Theatre became the first Hispanic theatre in New York City to successfully make the transition from founder to successor. Mr. Angel Gil Orrios, a noted Spanish director/producer/designer and writer, assumed leadership on January 1 2000. He expanded the theatre's focus, producing our plays with biligual casts performing in English and Spanish, collaborating with international artists such as the flamenco guitar prodigy Daniel Casares and maestro Raul Jaurena, and inaugurating our signature World Premiere Hispanic dance musicals, which not only have included tango but also two flamenco musicals from plays written by Pablo Picasso. In 2001 we began offering bilingual Theatre for Youth and Theatre for Children Workshops.
Specialties
As the only bilingual Hispanic theatre in the borough of Queens, we specialize in producing original programming that represents the diversity of New York City's Hispanic community. We produce plays by Spanish, Hispanic-American and Latin American authors with bilingual casts, performing alternate days in English and in Spanish. We're the only venue in New York City to produce an annual tango musical, a genre that we invented in 2001 with