2007 Year End Letter from TADA!'s Executive and Artistic Director and Co-founder, Nina Trevens
Once a year, we share with you the successes of the past season and the promise of what’s to come. With your support, our most recent season of musical theater and Arts Education programs served 50,000 children and families, and garnered significant recognition from the leaders in theater, education and youth development, the press, private foundations, and government representatives. When talking about TADA! and its co-founder Janine Nina Trevens to The Los Angeles Times, renowned composer Stephen Schwartz explained:“The energy and devotion this requires is extraordinarily high, and only someone with Nina’s imagination, energy and dedication would be able to pull it off.”
You have allowed us to remain in the forefront of providing children with the joy of musical theater as a means of developing their young minds and hearts in a positive way. We would like to take this time now to simply thank you for your loyalty and friendship as we plan for an even more vibrant year ahead.
“TADA! helped me grow not only as a performer, but as a student, a friend and as a person. It allowed me to express myself in a safe environment and it will always be a second home,” explained a TADA! Ensemble Member. We are so proud to say that all our senior Ensemble Members graduated from high school last year and continued on to college, and 85% of our Ensemble kids return to TADA! year after year, proving that we give kids what they need artistically, socially and emotionally. The Ensemble Program also continues to be the main out-of-school activity for more than 87% of our kids.
This past season, there were 94 performances at our theater, serving over 8,000 youth and families with exciting shows performed by kids for kids. Our mainstage shows consistently sold at more than 90% capacity. The production season began with the 15th Annual Staged Reading Series for teens in October. In January, TADA!’s produced two shows based on books by beloved author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats, Adventures from Ezra Jack Keats: Maggie and the Pirate and Apt. 3, which received critical acclaim and performed to sold-out audiences. In April, we produced a TADA! favorite, Everything About School (Almost). According to The Daily News, “With its talented young cast, zippy songs and cheery choreography, ‘Everything’ is a winning combo.” This past July, we were especially proud to have featured the world premiere of The Gumball Gang: Crime Solving Kids, a musical composed and written by TADA!’s own Resident Music Director Jim Colleran. According to The New York Times: “The show aims at many targets and hits them neatly … jazzy tunes … ebullient choreography . . . there’s nothing boring onstage.”
The season ended with our production of Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays NYC, a work aimed at an adult audience. 365 gave us the wonderful opportunity to see many of our Ensemble alumni perform alongside some of our current teen members. TADA! also performed the plays at The Public Theater along with the Ma-Yi Theater Company, the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Mud/Bone and The H.A.D.L.E.Y Players. In a recent survey of the alumni, 100% of respondents said that TADA! made them “feel respected and valued.” In addition, our talented Ensemble also performed at CultureFest, Tribeca Family Festival, Good Morning America, the Heart Gallery Benefit, Barnes and Noble Holiday Event, NY1, Annual Auction, First Avenue Street Fair, Liz Swados new kids’ CD and a private party in Connecticut.
We continued to serve over 35,000 children annually through our Arts Education program. Last season, we offered 27 Week-long Camps, a TADA! record, and they were all filled to capacity. We also ran a special Week-long for Korean children from the Tao Theater Company from Seoul, South Korea at TADA!, our first overseas partnership. After-school programming also increased by 35% last year. Our parent workshops were extraordinarily well-received: “TADA!'s teaching artists were extraordinary in their ability to 'de-stress' the parents (on a Saturday morning, no less!) and make them feel comfortable participating. The children truly benefited from the mutual exercise. Our PTA representatives said they have never received so many positive comments from parents about a program...Through these workshops the parents have gained a better understanding of how the arts can become an important part of the curriculum at PS 59 and many have realized it should be integrated into their child's school day,” explained Dorit Zeevi-Farrington, Education parent.
Our funding partners have always been integral to what we do at TADA!, and some significant newcomers have helped keep TADA! alive and well this year. A new program from the New York City Council and the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, Cultural After School Adventures (CASA), helped bring our programs to schools and community centers in Brooklyn: Ridgewood Bushwick Youth Center and Warren Street Center, and in Manhattan: P.S. 315. In addition, several NYC Councilmembers have stepped up and made allocations to TADA! in both 2007 and 2008.
We were also thrilled that the National Endowment for the Arts renewed their support of our Arts Education residencies; and the Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts increased our funding for 2007-08. Several of our foundation partners were also able to increase their grants to TADA!, which made a significant difference in our ability to deliver programs to NYC kids. Despite all these wonderful new grants for new programs, general support remains challenging for TADA!. Five years after our move from 120 West 28th Street, we continue to battle rising expenses (insurance, rent, etc.).
Our 2007-08 season is underway with after-school programs and classes, in-school residencies, and classes and rehearsals for our Ensemble program. The mainstage musical season starts in January with the musical The Perfect Monster about a young girl who sets out to create the “perfect” friend and ends up with a lab full of monsters. We then bring two world premiere musicals to our 28th Street theater: Princess Phooey, a different take on a fairy tale with a rebellious princess, hilarious chambermaids and of course, a handsome prince; and Everything About A Family (Almost), the latest comedic musical revue in our popular EVERYTHING ABOUT series. We are especially proud of this new EVERTYHING ABOUT show since it is the first piece ever conceived by our Resident Youth Ensemble members.
As one Ensemble parent explained, “TADA! has made a huge impression on my family’s life. We have two children that are very different. Our older child has always been academically and athletically talented. I knew that our younger daughter had always been shadowed by her big sister’s achievements. However, when our younger daughter was invited to join the TADA! Ensemble she began to blossom. Her focus, energy and self esteem improved almost immediately after she began working with TADA!. Her debut performance took my breath away. As I watched my daughter take the stage, she exuded a confidence and joy that I hadn’t seen before. At that moment I thought, ‘This is it! This is exactly where she needs to be.’ As a parent and educator, I feel that it is essential to support children’s development with various opportunities to explore their potentials. TADA! has given her an opportunity to discover and develop her talents in a way that has been contagious in all other aspects of her life.”
We hope that you will continue to help us sustain our mission to provide a safe and magical place for our children to express themselves.
Janine Nina Trevens
Executive & Artistic Director