When Janine Nina Trevens was growing up in her native Massachusetts, she always aspired to be an elementary school teacher. She loved being around and working with children so much that she headed off to the prestigious Barnard College to become an educator. Or so she thought. “Theater is what happened,” Trevens said. “My mother was a theater critic and my sister was an actress, but I wanted no part of it. I was very shy and didn’t think much of it. But I somehow became a stage manager for a friend of mine and I then thought that theater was something that I had to do.” Trevens somehow got hooked on theater and moved to New York to work in the theater capital of the world. At age 23, under the encouragement of her mother, she was asked to produce a children’s festival involving children and theater. “I always wanted to work with children,” Trevens said. “This was the best of both worlds. I wanted to build a little world for kids, to build a theater company strictly for kids. I just adore working with them.” Now, 16 years later, her little children’s festival that began with a shoestring budget of $1,500, has blossomed into “TADA!”, a major production company with one goal in mind: the benefit of children. TADA! involves original productions that are performed by the group’s resident ensemble. But it’s much more than just putting on shows. It also features an arts-in-education program that serves 110 public and private schools in New York. TADA!’s classroom program has visited schools in Union City and Jersey City in the past few years. TADA! also has an after-school program in another 27 schools, as well as professional theater training for educators, year-round musical theater classes for kids in grades kindergarten through 12 and a staged reading series where kids perform original plays. And Trevens, a Weehawken resident, remains TADA!’s artistic director. Trevens is once again hard at work, directing the group’s spring production, called “Sweet Sixteen,” a musical revue celebrating TADA!’s 16th birthday and featuring some of the favorite and most memorable musical numbers over the years. The show will be held at the TADA! Theater, located at 120 W. 28th Street (between Sixth and Seventh avenues) from now until March 26. Trevens is excited about the group’s latest production. “It’s a musical celebration, looking back over the last 16 years,” Trevens said. “It’s a show that moves quickly, with 32 kids performing 20 musical numbers in more than 120 costumes.” Trevens said that the children in the show all had to audition for the parts and after 16 years and nearly 50,000 participants in that time, finding kids for the roles is not a tough task. “Most of the kids in the show have been around with us for a while,” Trevens said. “And they’re very talented.” Some of the more famous graduates of the TADA! program include talk show host Ricki Lake, who has also made movies like “Hairspray” and “Serial Mom;” Shawn Nelson, who starred in the movies, “Fresh” and “The Wood,” and Kathy Trien, who was in “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids.” “I think the thing I like the most is that the kids are able to go after any dream they want,” Trevens said. “Whether it’s pre-med or pre-law in college. That’s the best thing I get is that they’re out there, wanting to do something. It doesn’t have to be theater. They learned skills and heard a positive voice.” What makes Trevens’ contribution to kids even more astounding is that she has endured the pain of defeating cancer twice. In 1985, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and went into remission, only to have the disease reappear in 1989. “The first time it happened, I was young, 24 years old,” Trevens said. “I didn’t even let myself call it cancer. I didn’t want to believe it. I never paid attention to anything and didn’t want to know a thing. I went through chemotherapy and radiation, my hair fell out, and I thought nothing of it. “When it reappeared in 1989, it made me more aware that I wanted to live,” Trevens said. “That I wanted to continue to help kids, to have children of my own. I realized how important life is. That’s what kept me going. I remember being in my doctor’s office, after losing my hair again, being in pain, saying that I wanted to have a baby. They weren’t so sure. But I never gave up hope.” Sure enough, Trevens defeated the disease again and has been in remission since 1990. She then pledged her life to help defeating cancer, giving lectures and talks on the disease. “I became more involved with Cancer Care, a group that helps people with cancer,” Trevens said. “Whenever I talk about cancer, it helps me realize what I have. I’m helping kids see the sun. I tell people to make sure they do something they want to do.” Three years ago, Trevens got married to Jersey City native Andy Bryant. “Nine months after we got married, I had my daughter,” Trevens said. “She’s my little miracle and she’s my savior. And incredibly, her astrological sign is cancer. That’s a constant reminder.” Trevens’ daughter, Ceanna, is approaching her third birthday, and she’s been bitten with the TADA! bug. “She comes to the shows and dances in the background, singing, ‘TADA, TADA,'” Trevens said. “She’s a joy.” As is Trevens’ life. “I’ve had enough health things in my life,” Trevens said. “I don’t want any more. I have my husband and daughter and my company. That’s all that matters.”
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
