Current director and/or choreographer credits include over 30 TADA! mainstage musicals, including Samantha Spade: Ace Detective, Rabbit Sense, Everything About Camp (Almost), and Golly Gee Whiz!, plus 365 Days/365 Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks at 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. Her choreography can currently be seen across North America in 50 SHADES! The Musical.
Our Team
Jim Colleran (Book/Music/Lyrics) is an award-winning writer, music director, and teaching artist. Most recently, Jim wrote music and lyrics for The Little Lemonade Girl, which premiered at the Kaufman Center in July as part of the Lucy Moses Summer Musical Tehater Workshop. For nine years, Jim served as Resident Musical Director for TADA! Youth Theater, where he created dozens of original in-school musicals and oversaw music for nearly 30 mainstage shows. For TADA! Jim wrote the book, music, and lyrics to The Gumball Gang: Crime-Solving Kids (Winner, 2007 National Youth Theater Award) and composed songs for all four shows in the Everything About… series.
Jim is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (winner, 2006 Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement). Book/music/lyrics: The Gentleman Jim Show (national tour), Still Life at the Golden Age, Go Girls Go!, Hoarder Patrol (all at The York Theatre), and Swampelot (Allegro Theater, NJ). Music/lyrics: It's A Wonderful Life, Medea, and over 200 children’s songs at Kidstock Creative Theater in Winchester, MA. Film and video: songs for Thinkeroo Video and Gann Films (winner, Best Song: National Film Challenge).
As a vocal coach, Jim specializes in training young singers for performing arts school auditions and for professional work. His vocal students are currently featured in several Broadway shows, including The Lion King, Matilda, and Kinky Boots.
Joanna Greer (Choreographer) holds a BA in Musical Theater Performance and Dance from Columbia College Chicago. Joanna currently serves as Associate Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer at TADA! Youth Theater. As a director/ choreographer, teaching artist and arts administrator, she has had the pleasure of working with numerous organizations, including The American Ballroom Theater (featured in the 2005 Documentary Mad Hot Ballroom), YANY, City Lights Youth Theatre, and the acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Evie Task (Producer) has over two decades of experience in the non-profit and higher-education fields as a former event planner, and as a development and alumni relations director. Her exceptional communication skills and gregariousness have also served her well as a theatrical producer. For the New York International Fringe Festival, Evie produced The Miracle on Monroe Street in 2007.
Other producer credits include Godspell, The Gentleman Jim Show, and several other productions throughout northern New Jersey. A graduate of Rutgers University, Evie currently serves as Communications Manager for a boutique insurance administrator, where she manages client publicity, oversees all print and electronic publications, and serves as the Sales and Marketing department’s project manager.
Chelsea Parrish (Production Stage Manager) OFF-BROADWAY: The Zombies: A Musical (Peter Jay Sharp Theater), Murder For Two, Modern Terrorism (Second Stage Theatre); Satchmo At The Waldorf (Westside Theater), The 34th Marathon of One-Act Plays (Ensemble Studio Theatre). OFF-OFF-BROADWAY: Daughters of the Sexual Revolution, Life On The Mississippi (WorkShop Theater Company), Carcass (HERE Arts Center), Owned (KnifeEdge Productions).
NEW YORK:I Found My Way, The Dusty Springfield Musical reading (The Network), It Takes Life, The William Esper Studio Graduate Showcase (Signature Theatre), Rocket Science reading (American Theatre Group), Elevation (Columbia University). EVENTS: Young Playwrights Festival, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Beechman Theatre. REGIONAL: Cabaret, The Comfort Station, The Grand Guignol (American Repertory Theater); A Chorus Line, My Fair Lady, Bye Bye Birdie, Sound of Music, Oklahoma (Reagle Music Theatre). BFA Stage/Production Management, Emerson College.
Steve O'Shea (Set/Lighting Design) is Resident Lighting Designer for TADA! Youth Theater. Recent designs: Unsung/Heroes, The Perfect Monster, Apt. 3, Maggie and The Pirate, They Chose Me! (TADA!), SubUrbia (Montclair State Univ.) Mere Mortals (Two River Theatre Co.), Last Easter (Drew University), Father Joy (NYC Summer Play Festival), Midsummer Night's Dream (Vital Theatre), Cloning Judson (Southern Rep., New Orleans), He and She (TACT), Aloha Say The Pretty Girls (Baruch), 12 Ophelias (Baruch), Murder In The Cathedral (University of CT), Laura's Bush (Vital Theatre), Late (Clubbed Thumb), Brainpeople (Hour Glass), Tristan Und Isolde, Magic Flute, Norma, and Le Nozze di Figaro (Teatro de la Opera, San Juan, PR).
Megan Turek (Costume Design) Recent costume design credits include TADA!’s Unsung & Heroes, The Gift of Winter, Carousel, and August: Osage County at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Grey Gardens and Next Fall at the Unicorn Theatre, and the Coterie Theatre’s production of The Presidents, Little House on the Prairie, and U:BUG:ME. Megan holds a BS in Theatre Design and Technology from the University of Wisconsin and an MFA in Costume Design and Technology from UMKC.
Justin Perkins (Planet and Props Design) Justin is a puppeteer and actor who has appeared in works by Dan Hurlin, David Neumann, Patti Bradshaw, and others, and for Puppet Cinema, The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, Cosmic Bicycle, imnotlost, and American Centaur [www.americancentaur.com], of which he is a founding member. He created an adaptation of Gulliver's Travels for Puppet Lab 2014 at St. Ann's Warehouse. His puppet, prop, and costume designs have appeared at New York Musical Theatre Festival, New York Children's Theatre Festival, Swedish Cottage, and in feature film What Maisie Knew. He is also a teacher of puppetry, film and acting to children and teens, with degrees in theater from Vassar and Sarah Lawrence.
Jordan Friedman (Assistant to the Directors) is a freelance theatre director. Recent credits include How I Learned To Drive (Theatre 54), Proof (Bridge Theatre), and producing the Emerging Voices Play in a Day Festival. He has also worked with companies such as Frog & Peach Theatre, Grex Group Theatre, and AlphaNYC. Proud alum of Ithaca College. Thanks to Jim, Joanna, cast and crew for making his first Fringe a fun one. jordanbfriedman.com.
