Thursday, June 6, 2024

Dear Friends and Family, 

It’s my favorite time of the year – SUMMER! It didn’t used to be because my body temperature always ran hot, but something in me has shifted. I now love the sun and the warmth, and sitting and reading by the pool. I thrive in the sunny days and I love water. I guess that makes sense since I’m an Aquarius. TADA!’s very first production was in the summer of 1984, in July to be exact. We cast all 14 kids that auditioned to be in a dance piece, The Odd Ball, and a short musical, The Little House of Cookies. Both pieces explored trying to fit in and finding your own “group.” TADA! has done a summer show for the past 40 years except for during the COVID shutdown and except for now — this summer. 

This summer is different at TADA!.  We don’t have a production, instead we’re having multiple weeklong summer camps in three of our spaces. I know I said that I love sitting by the pool, but that is not why there’s no summer show (in fact, I’m not really getting more pool time because I’m still in rehearsal). The reason we’re not doing performances is so that we could provide more weeklong camps and bring in much needed earned income. This year we’ve seen many of our on-site Education classes  grow – it’s been a tough road since COVID.  Box Office income, especially when the majority of the ticket sales come from group sales as it does in the summer, is at most $25,000. And that’s gross – not net. By having the theater available for summer camps for the 5 weeks it would have been booked by the show, we are able to net an additional $75,000 or three times as much as by having a show. 

This isn’t what we want to do every year because TADA! is a youth theater and a big part of our mission is to serve youth and families through original musical productions.  We want to serve our show audiences as well as our RYET members who look forward to and count on being in a summer show at TADA!. This year we had to put financial considerations first. The Board approved a deficit budget, but we want to get that down as low as possible.

So, we need people to register for our weeklong camps! If you have a child who wants to be a part of a group that creates and performs a musical together over a week – have them register here for one or more camps — June 17 – August 23, 2024. Camps are broken down by ages: 4 -5 year olds, 5- 7 year olds and 8 -12 year olds.  Please also share this with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and your child’s friends and classmates!

If you know talented kids ages 8 – 18 who are interested in joining the free Resident Youth Ensemble of TADA! (RYET) auditions are being held over the next couple of weeks. You can register here. If they get accepted they can start this summer by joining rehearsals for The History Mystery which will be performed this fall. TADA! spends approximately $10,000 of its resources yearly on each RYET member. 

We also need contributions! Your support helps us provide Arts For All Scholarships, continue the free pre-professional and positive youth development RYET program and provide free and discounted tickets to TADA! productions. Please give even if you’ve already given this fiscal year. If everyone who received this email gave $10 we would end the year without a deficit – we would actually be able to create a cash reserve which would really help create some stability and make the future of TADA! a reality. If you’d like to make your gift one that occurs monthly, you can do that too – making a $10 recurring donation to TADA! would be a huge help, just think about how that money will stack up over time (and actually, if you sign up to have it done automatically, you won’t have to think about it at all!). 

I hope you all enjoy the summer and find time to relax and have fun. Oh, and if you haven’t seen Common Ground yet – please buy your tickets here to watch it wherever June takes you!

Best,

Janine Nina Trevens
Executive & Producing Artistic Director