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Original Family Musicals Performed By Kids!   TADA! will kick off its 2016 season with THE GUMBALL GANG: Crime-Solving Kids, from January 22 – February 15 at TADA! 15 West 28th Street. The original musical, with Book, Music & Lyrics by JIM COLLERAN, will be Directed & Choreographed by TADA!’s Associate Artistic Director & Resident Choreographer, JOANNA GREER, with Musical Direction by MATTHEW GREGORY. Set Design is byCarl Tallent, Lighting Design by Steve O’Shea & Costume Design by Cheryl McCarron.  Julia Nichols Stage Manages & Assistant Director/Assistant Stage Manager is Christina Franklin (TADA! alum). Featured in THE GUMBALL GANG: Crime-Solving Kids are Lily Bowman, Omarion Burke, Brooklyn Fuentes, Jaden Gonzalez, Emma Sobel, Riya Nagpal, Talia Ifrah, Sophia Abehaln, Andrew Johnson, Ashley Figueroa, AJ Walker, Daniel Fooksman, London Jones, William Reisacher, Nisha Borrelli, Vann Strasen, Kayla Claudio, Cassidy Mullin, Ciara Duff, Pauline Dayen & Bluend Mulbah, all members of the TADA! RESIDENT YOUTH ENSEMBLE.  Join the THE GUMBALL GANG: Crime-Solving Kids as they try to solve “The Case of the Missing Masterpiece.” Recommended for ages 3+.   ·  WHAT: The Gumball Gang: Crime-Solving Kids ·  DATES: January 22 - February 15       Saturdays and Sundays 2pm & 4pm ·  PLACE: TADA! Youth Theater ~ 15 West 28th Street ~ 3rd floor ·  INFORMATION: www.tadatheater.com ·  TICKETS: (212)252-1619 (ext. 5)  ·  BOX OFFICE: Hours vary, calls returned ASAP ·  HINT: Ask for bench seating so your kids can be right up front! JIM COLLERAN (Book, Music & Lyrics) has served as Resident Musical Director for TADA! where he created dozens of original musicals & oversaw music for nearly 30 main stage shows.  ForTADA! Jim wrote book, music & lyrics to The Gumball Gang: Crime-Solving Kids (Winner, 2007 National Youth Theater Award) & songs for every show in the Everything About… series; songs for numerous productions in schools throughout NYC; Still Life at the Golden Age, Go Girls Go! & Hoarder Patrol (York Theatre); My Little Martian for (NJ's Allegro Theater); It's A Wonderful Life, Medea, You Don't Know Jac! & over 200 children’s shows (Kidstock Creative Theater, MA).Recent Music Director credits include The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (Theatreworks USA; director, Jeremy Dobrish), Falsettos (Fire Island Pines Arts Project; director, Joe Barros) & the reading/workshop of a new musical titled Single Girl Sitcom (book/music/lyrics by Doug Friedman). Jim has worked with The Paper Bag Players, The Charles Busch Revue, The Irish Arts Center, The Slim Goodbody Show & in his original one-man musical assembly, Gentleman Jim. At the piano, he has performed at every major cabaret venue in NYC, from Town Hall to Sardi’s with Charles Busch, Alison Fraser, Julie Halston, Malachy McCourt, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Michael Rupert & Peter Scolari. Jim is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, where in 2006 he was awarded the prestigious Jerry Harrington Musical Theatre Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement. JOANNA GREER (Director/Choreographer) holds a BA in Musical Theater Performance & Dance from Columbia College Chicago. As a Director-Choreographer & Teaching Artist, she has had the pleasure of working with numerous award-winning organizations, such as The American Ballroom Theater (featured in the 2005 Documentary Mad Hot Ballroom), YANY, City Lights Youth Theatre & the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Current TADA! Director &/or Choreographer credits include The Banned Broadway Project, 25+ main-stage musicals as well as 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan Lori-Parks at TADA! & The Public Theater. Most recently, she choreographed 50 SHADES! The Musical (First National Tour), Alienne: The Musical Adventures of My Little Martian at the 2014 New York Fringe Jr. & the #SaveKidsLives traffic safety event with UNICEF. Joanna is also the Co-founder of NYC-based Kinetic Dance Theater, an artistic collective driven toward innovating dance theater, cabaret & musical theater performance. ****** Now celebrating 30 years, TADA! has provided young people of all different backgrounds, the opportunity to explore and perform musical theater together, in an educational, supportive and professional environment. Every year, TADA! produces three original musical theater productions with a discounted ticket program; free pre-professional training and youth development opportunities through the Resident Youth Ensemble, composed of approximately 80 NYC kids ages 8-18 annually; renowned Arts Education residency programs both in-and after-school programs that are often subsidized by our funders; and theater classes and camps for kids 2-13, taught by professional teaching artists and for which need-based scholarships are readily available. TADA!'s mission is two-fold: to provide high-quality musical theater productions performed by talented kids for family audiences and to provide a safe, creative and nurturing place where kids can harness their inherent energy, build their self-assurance and realize their true potential through the unique collaborative art form that is musical theater. Through TADA!'s high-quality work, young people gain confidence and learn commitment, responsibility, communication and teamwork...skills that are critical to their success both in school and in life. TADA! Youth Theater is a 501(c)3 non-profit theater company. Janine Nina Trevens, Executive and Artistic Director, co-founded TADA! in 1984 and continues to lead the organization towards a robust future. She oversees all of TADA!’s programs and leads the Resident Youth Ensemble. Nina’s lengthy tenure with TADA! and the overwhelmingly positive anecdotes from current and past alumni, speak to her credit as an artistic leader in youth theater. Nina was selected as one of 10 Parenting Leaders by Parenting Magazine and was one of only five women nationally to receive Family Circle’s First Annual Halo Award for women who make a difference. TADA! is the first youth theater to ever win a Special Drama Desk Award-winner for “Providing an invaluable contribution to the future of the theater.” In 2013/2014, TADA! received five awards and twelve nominations from the National Youth Arts Awards and has won a total of 17 awards as well as 12 National Youth The ater Awards. In addition, TADA! has come home with the Coming Up Taller Award, the Nation’s highest honor for youth development from the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities and the American Alliance for Theater Education’s Anne Flagg Multicultural Award. TADA! was also nominated for an Independent Theater Award , another first for a youth theater.

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