TADA! Youth Theater Presents SAMANTHA SPADE, ACE DETECTIVE, Now thru 5/18

TADA! Youth Theater, Janine Nina Trevens Executive & Artistic Director, proudly presents the WORLD PREMIERE ofSAMANTHA SPADE, ACE DETECTIVE: THE CASE OF THE MALTBALL FALCON, an original family musical performed by kids for kids, from today, April 26-May 18. A film- noir-detective-story-musical (Nancy Drew meets Bogie!), SAMANTHA SPADE, has Book & Lyrics by Lisa Diana Shapiro, Music by Georgia Stitt, Direction & Choreography by Joanna Greer & Musical Direction by Sinai Tabak. Set & Lighting Design are by Steve O'Shea, Costume Design by Cheryl McCarron with Stage Management by Phoebe Duncan.

Samantha is a lonely kid who prowls the black & white, rain-washed streets of her film-noir fantasies, as SAMANTHA SPADE, ACE DETECTIVE, the go-to gumshoe who always solves the case (for $25 a day plus Twizzlers).

Lisa Diana Shapiro (Book & Lyrics) had her first musical, Princess Phooey (music by Eric Rockwell) produced at TADA! Youth Theater in 2008, selling out its run & garnering rave reviews. Other playwriting credits include the hit comedy Labor Pains, a Comedy in Nine Months, which played a sold-out premiere run at the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles & has been produced regionally. Labor Pains was also a finalist in the New American Comedy Festival & a Backstage West-DramaLogue Garland Award nominee. Aces Wild, Lisa's first full-length play, premiered at Theatre Geo in Hollywood, winning awards in the FutureFest national play competition, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Competition & the Writer's Digest Competition. Lisa's play ...and Into the Fire has been workshopped Off-Broadway at Urban Stages & performed as a staged reading at Naked Angels in New York & at the West Coast Ensemble, as well as the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles. Her high-school tour show, The End of the Story, also received a workshop production Off-Broadway at TADA! Youth Theater.

Georgia Stitt (Music) wrote Big Red Sun (NAMT Festival winner in 2010, Arlen Award 2005 with John Jiler); The Water (with Jeff Hylton & Tim Werenko); The Danger Year (with Jamie Pachino) & Mosaic (for Inner Voices with Cheri Steinkellner). She has released three albums of her music: This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs of Georgia Stitt (2007), Alphabet City Cycle (2009) & My Lifelong Love (2011). Her songs & arrangements are represented on the solo albums of Susan Egan, Lauren Kennedy, Kate Baldwin, Robert Creighton, Stuart Matthew Price, Caroline Sheen, Daniel Boys, Kevin Odekirk & composer Sam Davis, as well as several Broadway Cares albums. Her choral piece, With Hope and Virtue (using text from President Obama's 2009 inauguration speech) was featured on NPR as part of Judith Clurman's Dear Mr. President cycle & her orchestral piece, Waiting for Wings, co-written with husband Jason Robert Brown, was commissioned by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra & premiered there in 2013, with conductor John Morris Russell. Georgia has degrees from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music & NYU's Tisch School for the Arts. She is on the theatre faculty at Pace University & is the composer-in-residence at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

Joanna Greer (Director) is a Musical Theatre Performance graduate from Columbia College Chicago. As a director-choreographer & teaching artist, she has had the pleasure of working with numerous companies such as TADA!, where she serves as Associate Artistic Director (Drama Desk Award), The American Ballroom Theater (featured in the award-winning documentary Mad Hot Ballroom), YANY & The Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Joanna is also the co-founder of Kinetic Dance Theater, a NYC based dance-theatre collective. Currently, her choreography can be seen across North America in Fifty Shades! The Musical & The Gift of Winter at TADA!

Janine Nina Trevens co-founded TADA! in 1984 with Linda Reiff. Since that time, she has served as Artistic Director for all works produced by the company. She has nearly 30 years' experience in performing arts for family & teen audiences. Prior to TADA!, Nina was the Associate to the Producer & Production Stage Manager at the First All Children's Theater, nationally & internationally respected family theatre that developed original musicals performed by young people for family audiences.

For TADA!, she has commissioned over 25 musicals specifically for child & teen actors & family audiences. In addition, she has directed the Ensemble appearances at Central Park's Easter Eggstravaganza, Salute to the Theater 2000 at Gracie Mansion, Circle Line's 50th Anniversary, J.P. Morgan & The White House. She directed & adapted the company's premiere musical, The Little House of Cookies & directed six staged readings & 20 mainstage productions for TADA!, including Princess Phooey, Everything About School (Almost), B.O.T.C.H., Maggie & the Pirate & Sleepover. She wrote & directed The History Mystery, Sweet Sixteen, The Perfect Monster & Odd Day Rain. Nina has also directed for the Woman's Workshop, MCC & the Kennedy Center's Educational Department's New Vision/New Voices Program. In May 1997, Nina was selected as one of the 10 Parenting Leaders by Parenting Magazine. In 1999, she was one of only five women nationally to receive Family Circle's First Annual Halo Award for women who make a difference.

TADA! Youth Theater is an ideal introduction for kids to the live theater, with delightful content, age-appropriate themes, an easily palatable running time & affordable prices. One family of four can see this production for less than the cost of one Broadway ticket.

For nearly three decades, under the direction of Artistic Director Janine Nina Trevens, the Drama Desk Award-winningTADA! Youth Theater has afforded young people of all backgrounds the opportunity to explore & perform musical theater together in an educational, supportive & professional environment. TADA!'s mission is two-fold: to present high-quality musical theater productions performed by talented kids for family audiences & to provide a safe, creative & nurturing place where kids can harness their inherent energy, build their self-esteem & realize their true potential through the unique collaborative art form that is musical theater. Through TADA!'s high-quality work, young people gain confidence & learn commitment, responsibility, communication & teamwork; skills that are critical to their success in both school & life.

TADA! programs are made possible, in part, by funding from, NYSCA, DCA, DYCD, ConEd Corporation, the Shubert Foundation & the Pinkerton Foundation among many others. TADA! Youth Theater is a 501(c)3 non-profit company. Special thanks to The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust & many individual supporters for helping to fund the mission & programs of TADA!

RESERVATIONS: Box Office (212)252-1619 x5 or www.tadatheater.com

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