Press Kit

Posted by Proctors Web Team

Mission statement: Through arts and community leadership, be a catalyst for excellence in education, sustainable economic development, and rich civic engagement to enhance the quality of life in the greater Capital Region.

Leadership Team

  • Philip Morris, CEO, Proctors Collaborative
  • Jean Leonard, President, Proctors Collaborative
  • Chris Musto, CFO, Proctors Collaborative
Media contact:

Jessica Sims, Communications Director
jsims@proctorscollaborative.org

Press show assets

Proctors Collaborative by the numbers

200 employees, 650,000 patrons, $25 million budget across all venues

Proctors Collaborative is an arts and community development organization based in New York’s Capital Region. With a Schenectady campus that is the region’s busiest performing arts center, Proctors hosts the best of touring Broadway, music, dance, comedy, film, and special events across five stages.

Proctors also manages Capital Repertory Theatre, Universal Preservation Hall, Collaborative School of the Arts, Marquee Power, and Open Stage Media; and provides event spaces and additional services to partner organizations like the Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra, Music Haven, Eighth Step, Story Circle, Schenectady Greenmarket and Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY.

at Proctors
Approximately 200 full and part-time employees
600,000 patrons served annually
1,700 annual events
$25 million budget
180,000 square feet

MainStage at Proctors
State-of-the-art proscenium stage in 1926 Thomas Lamb auditorium; movie screen; seats 2,600

GE Theatre
Contemporary black box theatre; movie screen; seats 400

Other spaces:
The Addy Theatre, Underground at Proctors, Fenimore Asset Management Gallery, and Robb Alley are malleable performance spaces, with seating capacity based on configuration. Harry Apkarian MainStage at Proctors, Key Hall, DeLack Guild Room, Wright Family Atrium, Albany International Room, and Taylor Made Group Room are event spaces capable of hosting 30–700 based on configuration.

Capital Repertory Theatre
Capital Repertory Theatre in downtown Albany is the only professional, producing theatre within a 14-county range. theREP has staged 47 world premieres since 1976.

Producing Artistic Director Miriam Weisfeld
40,000 patrons served annually
$3.5 million budget
4,000 square feet (auditorium and thrust stage)

at Universal Preservation Hall
UPH is a year-round entertainment venue that opened in March 2020 in Saratoga Springs’ friendly, walkable downtown, presenting top-tier live music, theatre and special events on an arena stage in an 1871 Victorian Gothic church.

Director Teddy Foster
30,000 patrons served annually
$2 million budget
13,000 square feet

Collaborative School of the Arts
The Collaborative School of the Arts has a broad, encompassing vision that embraces diverse performances, community events, career training programs, in-school and after-school programs, internships and national events like High School Musical Theatre Awards and BroadwayTECH. In the Adeline Graham Theatrical Training and Innovation Center, the school hosts a regional Entertainment Technology training program and is also home to the Schenectady School District’s City As Our Campus program, where students attend school here to explore career options in a thriving arts organization.

Education Director Christine Sheehan
More than 40,000 students served annually.

Marquee Power 
Marquee Power at Proctors is the only district energy system in the country run by a theatre—heating and cooling one million square feet of downtown Schenectady and reducing the community’s carbon footprint by more than 500 metric tons of CO2/year.

Open Stage Media 
Open Stage Media is a full-service video production facility, which produces and provides content for three public access broadcast streams.

Apostrophe Café 
Established in 2011, Apostrophe Café at Proctors features a full line of beverages, pastries and movie snacks as well as light fare for shows.

Creative Economy Initiative 
Proctors is a founding member of the Upstate Alliance for the Creative Economy (ACE), and part of a regional effort to support innovation, invention and creative workforce development.

Teching
Proctors hosts technical rehearsals of at least one Broadway tour annually, with a $5 million investment from producers yielding $50 million in economic impact, including use of regional hotels, restaurants, transportation, goods and services.

Timeline
Dec. 27, 1926 Proctors opens at 432 State Street, Schenectady as vaudeville hall and movie palace.
1929 The Proctors theatre chain is sold to RKO.
1930 An early public display of large-screen television on the Proctors stage.
1936–1970s Ownership passes to the Fabian cinema chain, and Proctors is operated primarily as a first-run movie house. Other owners follow, but as suburban multiplexes proliferate in the 1970s, the venue declines and is repossessed by the City of Schenectady.
1977 Community leaders form the not-for-profit Arts Center and Theatre of Schenectady, Inc. with the purpose of securing, owning and operating Proctors as a performing arts center.
1979 Proctors, purchased by ACTS from the city for $1, re-opens and is listed on National Register of Historic Places.
1983 Construction of a new “1926” marquee
1984 Installation of “Goldie” the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ.
1999 Conclusion of seven years of extensive renovation including roof replacement, stage floor replacement, plaster repair, dressing room redecoration, ceiling dome restoration and air conditioning.
2002 Arrival of CEO Philip Morris, former executive director of Arts Council of Chautauqua County.
2003 Launch of the $40 million expansion project, to construct a new stage house and black box theatre to revitalize downtown Schenectady
2005 “Phantom of the Opera” opens as the first production on the newly completed MainStage.
2008 Completion of the Marquee Power district energy plant.
2012 Proctors develops a management agreement with Capital Repertory Theatre, later a formal affiliation.
2015 Universal Preservation Hall joins Proctors Collaborative as an affiliated organization.
2018 The Adeline Graham Theatrical Training and Innovation Center opens on the third floor of Proctors.
2020 Universal Preservation Hall opens as a year-round venue with a concert by singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash
2021 Capital Repertory Theatre opens its new, permanent home at 251 North Pearl Street, after a multi-year construction project.

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Proctors Collaborative is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.