Recently completing its 24th season of performing and teaching, the NYS Theatre Institute was created by state legislation in 1974, based on a concept of founding director Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder. The Institute's mission is to produce professional theatre of the highest artistic standards and to use its productions as a means of teaching within the school curriculum. Performers, technicians, staff, and guest artists use theatre to reach beyond the stage into the classroom, motivating students to find new interest in their daily subjects. The Institute's educational services include in-class preparation and study guides, inservices, inter-disciplinary classes following performances, educational outreach programs, a Theatre Arts School, and an extensive intern and educator-in-residence program. Highly individualized internships provide school-to-work transition experience for high-school seniors as well as college under-graduate and graduate students from schools in New York and other states, as well as from other countries.