TADA! Youth Theater Presents Original Musical ODD DAY RAIN

The Drama Desk award-winning TADA! Youth Theater will present the futuristic rock musical, Odd Day Rain. In 2211, the world isn't as we know it. Following a big disaster years earlier, Aurora and her friends live outside without any adults, computers, running water... or even cellphones. Meanwhile, Claire continues life alone in the confines of her Pod run by Computer and wonders, "is there anything more out there?" What happens when Aurora goes back inside? Does Claire go outside and does she stay there? And what happens to Computer?

Odd Day Rain's book is written by Janine Nina Trevens & Deirdre Broderick, with music and lyrics by Deirdre Broderick. The production is directed by Janine Nina Trevens, TADA!'s founder and producing artistic director, with choreography by Joanna Greer, TADA!'s Associate Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer, and music direction by TADA!'s Resident Music Director, Matthew Gregory.

Members of the production team include: Set Designer Anton Volovsek, Costume Designer Victoria Butler, Lighting Designer Kathrine Mitchell, Projection Designer Mark Rosenthal, Production Stage Manager Nicole Carne, Assistant Stage Manager Ceanna Bryant, and Assistant Director/Assistant to the Choreographer Gabriella Gross.

Since 1984, TADA!'s mission is to provide young people from different backgrounds with musical theater programs that inspire them to be confident and creative; to learn and think differently. TADA! is a unique Drama Desk award-winning nonprofit youth theater that produces original musicals for children, teens, and family audiences. TADA! offers a free, year-round pre-professional training and a positive youth development program for the Resident Youth Ensemble (ages 8-18); musical theater classes/camps for the public; and musical theater residencies in NYC schools/community centers. Through TADA!'s high-quality work, young people gain integral skills in leadership, responsibility, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving - skills that help with growing up and are essential to their success both in school and in life.

Janine Nina Trevens (Playwright, Director, & Producing Artistic Director) co-founded TADA! in 1984 with Linda Reiff. 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 Perfect Monster, The History Mystery, The Little House of Cookies, Sweet Sixteen, and Odd Day Rain. She directs many of TADA!'s musicals, numerous staged readings, and Ensemble appearances at various locations and events in and around NYC including 2016's Banned Together: A Censorship Cabaret for Dramatists Legal Defense Fund by John Weidman at The Drama Book Shop. 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 was chosen to be part of the #OneInspired World Observatory opening, featured as an artist that has made a NYC difference, and was recently featured as New Yorker of the Week on NY1. She is proud to have served on funding panels for NYSCA, DCA, ART/NY and TCG. Nina is currently a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women. Thank you to all my TADA! kids. Most of all thank you and love to my grown baby, Ceanna.

Deirdre Broderick (Playwright & Lyricist) is a composer, lyricist, and singer/songwriter who writes, records and performs for film, television, theatre, dance and virtual reality gaming.

Feature film work as a composer and songwriter includes Krutin Patel's ABCD, the award winning horror short adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' Zombie, and the biographical documentary of legendary Beatles and British Invasion promoter Sid Bernstein - Sid Bernstein Presents... Her association with Mr. Bernstein reached international audiences when she produced his own debut album as a vocal artist (at the age of 93!) Sid Bernstein Presents...This year, Deirdre's upcoming feature film work includes director Shelagh Carter's romantic comedy Love, Repeat and director Kelley Van Dilla's Poughkeepsie Is for Lovers, both set to debut on the 2019 International Film Festival circuit.

As a dance composer, Deirdre has collaborated on two productions with the Paula Josa-Jones Performance Works dance company. Wonderland and Light and Bone have toured nationally, and been performed at Jacob's Pillow, The Majestic Theatre in Boston, and The Joyce in New York City. Last season her work was also featured in the Joe's Pub NYC dance presentation Fluid.

Deirdre's theatrical scores include the stage adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' Zombie for the NY International Fringe Festival and its Off-Broadway production at Theatre Row, as well as Twelfth Night and The Bacchae for Lantern Theater Company of Philadelphia. Her original musicals include multiple American productions of the cult classic Elvis spoofing Viva Los Alamos...in 3-D with librettist/lyricist Mike Katinsky, and her Spectacle of Spectacles: The Clairvoyant Cabaret for LaMama Theatre NYC.

Deirdre's musical works for children include two dvd packages for Hooked on Phonics and the original musicals, The Perfect Monster and Odd Day Rain with book by Janine Nina Trevens, both commissioned and produced by TADA! Children's Theatre in NYC. This winter, Odd Day Rain is enjoying a revival with the next generation of kids at TADA! Meanwhile, in the world of virtual and augmented reality gaming, Deirdre's currently finishing up the immersive and interactive 7.1 surround sound score for the new VR game Pulverum Souls.

Deirdre's professional training began at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Playwrights' Horizons, and a dramaturgical internship at Lincoln Center Theatre. She also trained as a composer and lyricist at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. As for working in the world of virtual reality, she's learned on the job that the best way to compose music while being simultaneously attacked by rabid intergalactic imps is quickly!

Joanna Greer (Resident Choreographer & Associate Artistic Director) holds a BA in Musical Theater Performance and 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, and the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Current TADA! Director and/or Choreographer credits include the Banned Broadway Project, 35+ mainstage musicals as well as 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan Lori-Parks at TADA! and The Public Theater. She choreographed 50 SHADES! The Musical (First National Tour), Alienne: The Musical Adventures of My Little Martian at the 2014 New York Fringe and the #SaveKidsLives global traffic safety event with UNICEF. Joanna is the Theater Director at Hannah Senesh Community Day School and the Co-founder of NYC-based Kinetic Dance Theater, an artistic collective driven toward innovating dance theater, cabaret, and musical theater performance.

Matthew Gregory (Resident Musical Director) is a composer, musical director, and actor. This is his fourth season with TADA!, and he composed the music for Skates! as well as the music and lyrics for Game Changers, premiering Summer 2019. In addition to working with the Resident Youth Ensemble, Matthew is also a private voice and piano instructor. As an actor, he has performed at Radio City, Joe's Pub, Feinstein's/54 Below, and regional theaters across the country. He is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association. His work as a composer includes Pajama Sam, a musical adaptation of a popular 90's point-and click computer game, and Where the Sidewalk Ends, a song cycle devised from the poems of Shel Silverstein. He is one half of the pop-country duo Halcyon Days as well as a solo artist. Matthew holds a BFA in Drama from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Photo credit: Courtesy of TADA! Youth Theater