TADA! Youth Theater Ensemble Presents SNEAK PEEK: SCHOOL OF ROCKWELL, Beg. 11/18

TADA! Resident Youth Theater Ensemble is pleased to commence their season on November 18 at 6 p.m. with Sneak Peek: School of Rockwell, directed by Janine Nina Trevens, a Season Celebration fundraising event including a pre-show reception with composer Eric Rockwell, a performance, and a post-show Q&A celebrating TADA!?s 20 year collaboration with Rockwell. Saturday and Sunday performances are at 2 p.m. & 4 p.m. at TADA! Youth Theater (15 West 28th St. 3rd Fl. New York, NY 10001).

Be among the first to enjoy a musical revue celebrating 20 years of TADA!?s relationship with composer Eric Rockwell featuring musical numbers from past Rockwell shows and a sneak peek at the upcoming season.

Sneak Peak is an annual event that this year will include various numbers from past TADA!-Rockwell collaborations and a sneak peek at musical numbers from the upcoming season as well as some Rockwell numbers from his Off-Broadway and other work.

Trevens remarks that collaboration with Rockwell ?has been tremendous for TADA!. His dedication to our success includes composing and/or conceiving over 11 musicals and working with company members as a vocal teacher. He is an absolute treasure.?

SNEEK PEAK: SCHOOL OF ROCKWELL performances are:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18: 6pm wine reception, 7pm show and post show Q&A
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19/20: 2pm and 4pm

Tickets 11/18 adults $75*, children $30* (*Ticket price is tax-deductible less the value of goods
and services);  11/19 & 11/20 adults $25, children $15
Tickets are available online at http://www.tadatheater.com/currentseason.asp

Running Time: 60 MINUTES

BIOGRAPHIES

ERIC ROCKWELL (playwright) is a musician, teacher, dramatist and award-winning composer of several critically acclaimed musicals. His work has been produced off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally. A 2004 Drama Desk nominee for best music, Eric composed the score and co-wrote the book to The Musical of Musicals (the Musical!) which, after two years of performances in New York, went on to have success on London?s West End, as well as in regional theatres from coast to coast. Eric was a member of the BMI-Lehman Engle Musical Theatre Workshop, where in addition to creating Musical of Musicals, he developed the score to A Little Princess, which was chosen for both the Dramatists Guild New Musicals Project and the New Tuners Festival at the Chicago Theatre Building. Mr. Rockwell has composed the scores to several musicals for children, including Golly Gee Whiz, a loving satire of the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney movie musicals of the thirties which was written as a commission for TADA!. The show was featured on Lincoln Center's Reel to Real series, and recently won a National Youth Theatre award for outstanding original musical. Other shows created for young audiences include The Trials of Alice in Wonderland, based on the work of Lewis Carroll, The History Mystery, a musical time-travel adventure and Princess Phooey, a very fractured fairytale. Eric collaborated with several of his colleagues to create Everything About School (almost), an irreverent but loving look at elementary, junior high, and high school. All these shows were originally produced by the TADA! Theatre Company in New York City.

For several years, Eric was the resident music director of TADA! and taught theatre and music extensively in the New York area. At the Rockwell Music Studio, he offers private instruction in piano and voice. An actor and singer himself, Eric has performed many musical theatre and light opera roles in off-Broadway and regional theatres. As a pianist, Mr. Rockwell is in the process of recording the complete canon of 19th century composer Stephen Heller.

As a "serious" composer, Mr. Rockwell made his Carnegie Hall debut with a heartwarming Christmas carol entitled The Annoying Drummer Boy.

JANINE NINA TRAVENS (Director) co-founded TADA! in 1984 with Linda Reiff. Since that time, she has served as the Artistic Director for all of the works produced by TADA!, many of which she commissioned specifically for the company. For TADA! she wrote The Little House of Cookies, The History Mystery and Sweet Sixteen as well as The Perfect Monster and Odd Day Rain with current writing partner, Deirdre Broderick. She directs many of TADA!?s musicals, numerous staged readings and Ensemble appearances at various locations and events in and around NYC. Nina was selected as one of 10 Parenting Leaders by Parenting Magazine, and she was one of only five women nationally to receive Family Circle?s First Annual Halo Award for women who make a difference. She is proud to have served on funding panels for NYSCA, DCA, ART/NY and TCG.

JOANNA GREER (Associate Artistic Director & Resident Choreographer) holds a BA in Musical Theater Performance and Dance from Columbia College Chicago. As a Director-Choreographer, Teaching Artist and Arts Administrator she has had the pleasure of working with numerous organizations, such as The American Ballroom Theater (featured in the 2005 Documentary Mad Hot Ballroom), YANY, City Lights Youth Theatre, and the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Current TADA! Director and/or Choreographer credits include 21 mainstage musicals as well as 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan Lori-Parks at TADA! and The Public Theater. Joanna is also the Co-founder of NYC-based Kinetic Dance Theater, an artistic collective driven toward innovating dance theater, cabaret and musical theater performance
JIM COLLERAN (Resident Musical Director) has served as Music Director for all of TADA!?s mainstage shows since 2004, several of which feature his songs. Jim wrote the book, music and lyrics for The Gumball Gang: Crime-Solving Kids and contributed music to each of the Everything About revues. Alumnus, BMI Musical Theatre Workshop (2006 Harrington Award winner). Composer: 4@15 (?07, ?08, ?11) and NEO3 at the York Theatre, Gentleman Jim, It?s A Wonderful Life, Medea, Paper Bag Players, Kidstock Theater, Thinkeroo Video, and Gann Films. Jim is currently back at work on Carried Away, his musical adaptation of The Curious Savage.

ABOUT TADA!:
Since 1984, TADA! Youth Theater has been providing young people of all different backgrounds the opportunity to explore and perform musical theater together in an educational, supportive and professional environment. TADA! has received many honors and awards including the American Alliance for Theater Education?s Anne Flagg Multicultural Award, , and more than a dozen National Youth Theatre Awards. Additionally, in 2008 TADA! was honored with a Coming Up Taller Award, our nation?s highest honor for youth development from the President's Committee on the Arts & Humanities, and in 2009 with a Special Drama Desk Award for "providing an invaluable contribution to the future of the theater.? TADA! is the only youth theater to have won this prestigious award.

Every year, TADA! produces: original musical theater productions performed by kids for family audiences; a discounted ticket program; free pre-professional training and youth development opportunities through the Resident Youth Ensemble composed of over 70 NYC and surrounding area kids ages 8-18; renowned Arts Education in-school residencies and after-school programs; and theater classes and camps for kids of all ages taught by professional teaching artists and for which need-based financial aid is readily available.

ABOUT TADA! PRODUCTIONS:
TADA!?s original productions employ professional directors, designers, technicians and musicians who work with a multi-ethnic cast of NYC children (ages 8?18) who are members of the TADA! Resident Youth Ensemble. TADA!?s productions lauded by critics around the country including Back Stage about Rockwell?s music for TADA!?s production of Princess Phooey ?varied tuneful songs with wittily subversive lyrics...are fun, never patronizing,? said Harry Forbes (April 29, 2008) and Theateronline.com who said, ?Fresh, updated...will surely delight the entire family.? TADA!?s Alum include Kerry Washington, Josh Peck, Christina Vidal, Mizuo Peck, Jordan Peele and Ricki Lake.