Bill Raiten
(Artistic Director, Acting Teacher, Consultant)

hhhhhhkWith the help of Lee Strasberg of the Actor's Studio, Bill began auditing evening acting classes at the prestigious H B Studios in New York City in the 1950's while still in high school. As a first generation Russian-American boy from Brooklyn, in awe of the glamour of Broadway, he met and talked theater with the likes of Helen Hayes, Susan Strasberg and the dozens of unknown and aspiring actors in his H B Studio's class. These classes and discussions strengthened his desire to be part of the Theatre world. He decided to become a stand-up comic and began performing at weddings, bar mitzvahs and small clubs in Brooklyn. He found his way to Hollywood to try his luck and there he discovered an unalterable fact; he was just not funny on stage. Bill returned to New York where he began to write original children's plays and to direct for eight years.
hhhhhhkIn 1970 Bill Raiten came to Maine to live quietly in the country, or so he planned. In Maine, he taught for four years at George Stevens Academy, a private high school, where he created the "Musical Productions" course, a class where students studied Acting and Singing for half of the year, wrote their own show in the fall and then in the spring presented a full length musical for the public. At the same time in 1972, he founded the New Surry Theatre (NST) as a Theatre/Acting school, with students coming from Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and California. During the 1980's the NST brought year-round acting classes, summer theatre camps, and summer repertory seasons to many Maine towns as well as to St. Andrews, Canada. While the NST was making its mark in Maine, he managed and tech directed the Surry Opera Co. on its first three trips to the USSR and the Robinson Ballet on its tours of Florida.
hhhhhhkIn 1989 he was invited to live in Leningrad, USSR as a guest director. This invitation came from a visiting Russian director who saw the NST's 1988 repertory season in Maine. He directed Murray Schisgal's "LUV" in the Komedy Theatre of Leningrad, where it was performed in repertory from 1989 through 2000, and two avant-garde plays by Edward Albee with the St. Petersburg Salon Theatre, who are now performing their own plays in New York and Paris. As a result of the success of his visit he was invited to bring twenty-five actors of the NST to the USSR for a two-week "Performances-for-Peace" tour where they performed songs and scenes from American plays and musicals. Raiten was then able to arrange exchanges between youth groups from Maine (such as the Libitzki School of Dance) and youth groups from Leningrad where they performed and lived in each other's homes. He brought professional actors and musicians from the USSR to America where they performed in Maine, New York, Canada and California, including appearances in the Santa Monica Jazz Festival and on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. He also brought his friend, "Fiddler on the Roof" lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and his wife, actress Margie Harnick, to accompany a troupe of American actors from Hollywood, California led by Herb Mitchell, a friend and a successful student of the NST's first years, to perform songs and scenes from "Fiddler" in the USSR.
hhhhhhkIn 1992, he was asked to create a program for at-risk youth, 14 to 22 years of age, using NST teaching techniques. The program, TAW, used theatre and computers to help troubled youth see how wonderful they truly were. TAW was 85% successful in getting at-risk youth back to school or into a lasting job. During those years, TAW produced the full-length musicals "Annie," "Music Man," "Oliver!", "Fiddler on the Roof," "Little Shop of Horrors," and "Man of La Mancha."
hhhhhhkWorking with MIT professor, and educator, Seymour Papert on a pilot project at the Maine Youth Center he used his teaching methods to have the incarcerated youth write and edit their own film.
hhhhhhkWorking with Maine Youth Voices, and The Maine Office of Substance Abuse he formed the NST Task Force and worked with local youth and adults to educate the community about the dangers of underage drinking. The Task Force wrote and filmed an original short documentary with MPBN that was aired in May 2001 and nominated for a New England regional Emmy Award.
In collaboration with the GRAND Auditorium in Ellsworth, Maine he designed and directed the summer Performing Arts School for youth ages ten through fifteen. In addition he directed the NST/GRAND's successful theatrical productions of "Lost in Yonkers" and "Noises Off" in 2001 and 2002.
hhhhhhkThis past winter, Bill has worked with George Stevens Academy students to produce an award winning one-act version of Arthur Miller's "A View From The Bridge" and the musical production of "West Side Story".
hhhhhhkAs the Artistic Director of the NST he directed two productions in repertory style last summer and he will continue to teach not only the New Surry Theatre's Acting classes but also GSA's Acting classes.