Who among us hasn't seen the magical way live theater can affect children?
The little girl who becomes engrossed in a show and realizes she wants to be
a dancer more than anything else. The precocious kid who finds that
appearing in a school play gives him confidence and discipline. The troubled
teen who discovers backstage a safe and supportive environment he can't
expect at home. The theater's reliance on supervised teamwork, its
investigation into the nature of human behavior, its mix of hard chores and
imaginative play -- surely no other activity offers more promise to
enthusiastic and talented young people ready to give a little to get a whole
lot more.

Someone who not only understands that dynamic but has spent more than two
decades putting it into joyful practice is Janine Nina Trevens, co-founder
and artistic director of New York City's TADA! Youth Theater. Unlike
children's theater where adults put on entertaining fables for family
audiences, TADA! lets the children do the acting. Each TADA! musical,
though penned by adults, is performed entirely by a company of actors as
young as eight and no older than eighteen. The organization offers
workshops, classes, playwriting contests, in-school residencies,
after-school programs and weeklong theater "vacations" -- not to mention a
legacy of shows that have enchanted kids while charming grownups. No surprise that TADA! has long billed itself as, "The biggest thing in little kids."

And yet it started out a very small thing. Trevens, now 45, and co-founder
Linda Reiff started the company in 1984 on a budget of just
$1,550. "I was stage managing an adult show in a theater festival,"
remembers Trevens, "and the producer wanted to do something for kids. So we
begged and borrowed things from people to do the shows. I raised money from
my family. That first summer, we did two shows: a dance piece called THE
ODD BALL and the musical, THE LITTLE HOUSE OF COOKIES. The designers
donated their time; we just paid for the physical costumes, the props, the
set.

"After the first season, we decided to keep it going. I knew I'd always
wanted to work with kids. I'd been production stage manager and associate
to the artistic director at something called `The First All-Children's
Theater,' and it was really inspirational to me. It said to me, `Yes, you
can do theater with kids.' But I wanted to do it my way, with something a
little less strict. So TADA! evolved from that, because to me, the whole
youth-development aspect of what we do is just as important as the quality
of the productions."

Expanding on that theme, Trevens notes that, "the philosophy of the
organization gets mirrored in the shows we do. All the productions
basically come down to accepting people for who they are. For example, we
do a whole series called, `Everything About.' EVERYTHING ABOUT CAMP
(ALMOST), EVERYTHING ABOUT SCHOOL (ALMOST), etc. These deal with being the
new kid at camp or school and are about accepting people and liking their
differences. And this-coming season, we're reviving APARTMENT 3, based on
Ezra Jack Keats' novel. It's about what a new kid needs to do to feel
accepted."

Lest readers think the scripts are just dashed-off excuses for “child’s play”,
it should be noted that TADA's tuners are penned by theater professionals,
many of whom have worked on and off Broadway. In fact, the book and lyrics
for APARTMENT 3 were by none other than Winnie Holtzman, --the librettist for
WICKED, which remains Broadway's biggest weekly grossing musical three years
after its premiere. And there have been success stories on the performer
side, too. TADA!'s best known alumnus is Ricki Lake, but the troupe also
served as the first theatrical home for Josh Peck (of Nickelodeon's "Drake &
Josh"), MAD-TV regular Jordan Peele, and Kerry Washington, who played Mrs.
Ray Charles opposite Oscar- winner Jamie Foxx in "Ray." Of course, success
mustn't be measured only in fame and media attention. Trevens points
out that TADA! alumni have also gone on to a wide range of careers, including medicine, teaching, media, film and---you guessed it---the world of theater.

"My background is in psychology and education," says Trevens, "so one thing
I'm most proud of is that TADA!'s mission has always been to empower kids
and to use musical theater to help kids feel better about who they are. To
help them understand more about the world around them by meeting and working
with people of different backgrounds. Since the kids are the performers AND
the audience, it's really about putting children in a professional
environment with high expectations. They can accomplish a lot."

Asked what she looks for in the hundreds of youths who audition annually to
be part of the ensemble, Trevens replies, "It's instinctual for me at this
point. You look for raw talent. The kids who really want to do it -- and
it's THEIR want, not a parent's want. Also, they do have to sing. They
have to be able to listen and follow directions. And they must be willing
to try things in the audition, which is a mini-workshop: there's usually a
song and a brief dance combination." Once an ensemble of 70 kids has been
chosen, they'll audition further for roles in the season's three musicals.
"Some ensemble members stay for years and years. We become a second home."

As one might imagine, the budget is no longer fifteen hundred dollars. In
fact, it's a thousand times that at over 1.5 million annually. Yet the money still goes. "Rent is a huge part of it. And the money also goes to health insurance, salaries, the education
program, teaching artists who work on-site, the band, electricity. Even
though we're non-Equity, we have to pay everybody except the interns." The
box office takes in only $55,000-$65,000, notes Trevens. "Education income is
fifty percent of the budget. But even then, we're giving a lot of free
tickets out and providing scholarships to more than 25 percent of the kids
in the program. “The majority of our kids are from homes below the economic
self-sufficiency standards of New York City. A lot are from single-parent
homes, too."

Asked if this is code for saying the youths are troubled or come from
difficult families, Trevens counters, "ALL kids come from difficult
families. Growing up is difficult. It doesn't matter how much money you
have or where you live. And there's so much pressure on New York kids.
From early on -- all the testing, trying to get into the `right' school.
And a lot of kids who like performing arts aren't the most popular ones in
their school. That Disney movie, `High School Musical,' was adorable --
everybody gets along and they all do a show together. But that's not the
reality of most kids in their schools."

Trevens then returns to her basic point about TADA!: kids learn about
themselves and their world through exposure to varied people with a
commonality of experience. "New York City is very diverse, but you find
people who just stay in their neighborhood or borough or private school.
What we do that's unique is bring kids together from all different
backgrounds. We let them see that the world is not made up of just how your
family is; there are many different kinds of families. For example, this
year, we did a musical called, THEY CHOSE ME, a world premiere about
adoption. A lot of adoptees came, but others came and said, `That's my
story, because I have two moms, or a single mom. Some of those feelings, I
have as well.' That universality of feelings -- even though we may look
different or not speak the same language -- is crucial: wanting to be liked,
to have friends, to feel good about themselves."

If TADA!'s audiences learn life lessons from the company's shows, the
performers learn most from each other. "They learn about cooperation and
responsibility to a group," says Trevens. "One thing about musical theater
is that everyone has to work together. They'll watch our directors and
choreographers and realize that adults really have to collaborate and
negotiate to make something happen. And you have to do some things you
don't want to do in order to do the things you DO want to do."

That said, Trevens notes with some rue that she has seen a change in kids
over the past 22 years. "It used to be that sixth graders and younger kids
didn't judge what they were doing. They tried things and were much more
open. Now, much earlier, kids become more self- conscious. They're looking
for the `right' answer, but there IS no right answer when creating a
character. There never is in theater; it's your choice. You experiment
with the director and other actors to see what works. So I've seen a loss
of that purity, that unconditional enthusiasm, which I think has to do with
the expectations put on kids now. That pressure, the homework, the big
tests they're already taking in third grade... I mean, when I was 15, I knew
more than everybody else in the world. I knew much more than I know now.
That should be part of the whole process; as you get older, you know less
and less."

Make no mistake, Trevens is not advocating art over education. All TADA!
members still have to go to school and maintain their grades. "Not
everybody has to be an A student, because that's not right for everybody,"
Trevens notes, "but TADA! certainly doesn't take the place of school." And
even if the child doesn't live in the vicinity of TADA! or another theater
like it, Trevens urges parents to encourage and nurture the youth's artistic
leanings. "The biggest thing we can do for kids is to encourage them to
explore their interests. If they start in one place and don't like it, try
a different place. But let them try things out and be happy with what
they're doing." Asked how she'd respond if her own eight year-old wanted to
audition for TADA!, Trevens said she hopes her daughter
girl will continue with her after-school activities -- especially a
"fabulous" dance class her daughter especially loves.

As for long-range plans, Trevens is keeping her goals modest. "I don't want
a huge theater; it's not about becoming bigger and bigger. I'd just like to
serve more kids, because so many want to do this. I'd like to do more
productions per year, and I'd like to have our own space instead of leasing,
or having to worry about moving again. But it's still very hard with the
current economy and not knowing where your funding is coming from. Even
long-term donors can pull out at any time. This year, one funder who had
been consistent for a long time at $30,000 a year sent -- without any
advance notice -- just a form rejection letter. I know you're not supposed
to count on funding, but it hurts when you're trying to keep ticket prices
low and keep serving as many kids as we do.

"I'm proud TADA! is still here and serving thousands of kids a year,"
concludes artistic director Trevens. "We've stayed true to our mission:
shows performed by kids, for kids. Kids are the focus of what we do, and my
purpose has always been to make growing up a little bit easier in some way.
I know it sounds stupid, but I want people to get along with each other. To
realize we have things that bug us but to also look for the good. To make
the world a little bit better."

For information about TADA!'s programs, classes, auditions and
season, please visit www.tadatheater.com or call 212-252-1619