TADA! Brings a Pair of Books by Ezra Jack Keats to Vibrant Life on Stage
Submitted by Raven Snook on
From Fancy Nancy to the Berenstain Bears to Matilda, putting popular children's books on stage is nothing new. And yet TADA! Youth Theater's musicalization of a pair of Ezra Jack Keats stories is pretty daring because most theater companies stay far away from the award-winning author/illustrator. Yes, he's famous and many of his books are beloved, so adapting his work might seem like a no-brainer. But here's the thing: While Keats' tales are quite evocative on the page, with moody illustrations and sparse text that capture the inner lives of his characters, there isn't a lot of action. How the heck do you make that theatrical?
Well, TADA!—a company made up of talented local kids ages 8 to 18 that we're always raving about—decided to give it a go. How did they fare?