NYTE History and Achievements

NYTE's Most Recent Accomplishments

April 2008: Launched NYTE Small Press website as a place to learn more about NYTE's publishing program, the playwrights, and a full online catalog offering simple ordering information. May 2008: Martin Denton receives OTTY award from Our Town local newspaper as part of the Culture Club for his "passion for the stage" where his "love of theater found a life online". July 2008: NYTE convenes the 2nd Indie Theater Convocation to an overflowing crowd of over 165. The purpose was to bring the Indie community together once again to update on advances since the 1st convocation and to begin work on new initiatives to benefit the community. September 2008: The 2008 Stewardship Award for significant contribution to the Off-Off-Broadway community through service, support and leadership was presented by Kirk Wood Bromley to The New York Theatre Experience / Martin & Rochelle Denton (awarded by The New York Innovative Theatre Award). October 2008: Noted in the NY Times Travel Section on Oct. 5 — "there is a comprehensive discount page on nytheatre.com that also mentions rush tickets, which are last-minute bargains often restricted to students with ID." and "Since the shows’ runs are short and attract less press attention, a couple of Web sites can help you sort through the mess. Indietheater.org has thorough, impressively up-to-date and easy-to-read listings with links to learn more about each."

The very beginning

October 1996: Martin Denton takes an Internet class and builds his first website, dedicated to his number one passion, the theatre. February 1997: Martin's Guide to New York Theatre is officially launched on the Internet including Broadway and some off-Broadway listings, reviews of about a dozen Broadway shows, coming attractions, and theatre guides, and the first email newsletter is sent out to six subscribers. We've done one every week ever since. July 1997: Martin’s Guide to New York Theatre is renamed nytheatre.com.

Incorporation as NYTE

July 1999: The New York Theatre Experience, Inc., is founded by Martin Denton (Executive Director) and Rochelle Denton (Managing Director), and quickly attains 501(c)(3) tax exempt status from the IRS.

NYTE becomes a publisher

October 1999: Publish Emerging Playwrights (PEP) initiative is born when we publish Plays and Playwrights for the New Millennium, containing eight plays from off-off-Broadway by emerging playwrights. Within two years, four of these plays receive productions outside NYC. This continued as an annual volume, published in February of each year and is noted by the Library of Congress as an authentic series.

Years of growth

September 2001: In wake of the WTC attack, NYTE is evacuated from its office for eight days. nytheatre.com coverage continues and includes information about schedule changes, cancellations, benefits, and special events. January 2002: NYTE receives its first government grant, from the New York State Council on the Arts. August 2002: nytheatre.com becomes the first media outlet to review every show in the New York International Fringe Festival, publishing 183 reviews by 62 reviewers in less than two weeks. This complete coverage continues each year. June 2003: NYTE undergoes major technological overhaul and upgrade, with installation of a computer network and development and implementation of a database application to streamline operations. September 2003: nytheatre.com receives a special OOBR Award for "sustained achievement off-off-Broadway." June 2004: The implementation of an automated database leads to even greater coverage of New York theatre. July 2004: nytheatre Beyond Manhattan is launched, leading to complete coverage of theatre in the other boroughs of New York City. September 2004: In addition to reviewing all of the shows in FringeNYC, nytheatre.com also reviews all of shows in the growing multitude of festivals found around the city. This, also, continues each year.

Bigger and better

March 2005: New enhancements added to nytheatre.com to make information retrieval simple and quick. June 2005: Developed and distributed nytheatre.com Summer Theatre Festival Guide Booklet. February 2006: A new version of nytheatre.com fully compliant with all rules for accessibility on the web. April 2006: Hosted the first ever indie theatre convocation bringing together more than 100 nonprofit companies for a common goal. June 2006: First podcasts produced and the launch of nytheatrecast.com as the place on the web to publicize and promote this series. February 2007: Launched shop.nyte as a secure encrypted website that allows readers to use their credit cards to purchase our publications, take advantage of special offers for our books, and support NYTE with their donations. May 2007: Launch the new version of indietheater.org website with listings and links for over 100 nonprofit theatre companies. June 2007: Add interactive maps to each theatre venue. July 2007: Begin promotion of the new mobile.nytheatre.com as an easy means of getting theatre news while on the go via smart phones. August 2007: Plays and Playwrights blog launched to promote and discuss NYTE small press.

Outreach and some interesting stats

Over the years Martin has participated in dozens and dozens of workshops and panels with groups such as Algonquin Productions, The Dish, Drama League, among many more. He has hosted talk backs after various performances at Barrow Street Theatre and T. Schreiber Studio, to name a few. He has been an invited guest lecturer at various classes at NYU.

Since the 21st century began, nytheatre.com has reviewed 5,031 productions*, and has had 45,239,639 page hits*. With the publication of Plays and Playwrights 2008, NYTE has published 125 new plays by 133 emerging playwrights.

*Statistics for 2000-2007.