This weekend, TADA! Youth Theater will present the second workshop of its new musical COMMON GROUND, with book, lyrics, and concept by Lisa Diana Shapiro, and music by Julia Jordan Kamanda with additional music by Georgia Stitt. It is a unique and inspiring musical about undocumented teenagers, who struggle not only with a new language and new friendships, but also racism, imminent threats from ICE, detention and possible deportation.
Lisa was inspired to write this work after spending two summers teaching film-making at the International Rescue Committee’s Refugee Youth Summer Academy, a school-readiness program for teenagers.
“My students knew very little English, yet each of my classes was able to create and film a three to four-minute movie,” said Lisa. “I was impressed by their intelligence, their drive and their excitement and creativity in the face of all obstacles. I pitched the idea of a show about them to Janine Nina Trevens at TADA!, and I am fortunate that she said yes!”
Since then, Lisa expanded her research by conducting extensive interviews with young people who had arrived in the United States as refugees and asylees.
Then the 2016 election happened, which brought with it the Muslim ban and family separation. Tragedies on a massive scale were playing out at our borders and airports.
Since 1984, TADA! has always worked with NYC youth and teenagers from diverse cultural backgrounds. Suddenly, this work and this musical became even more important. A number of TADA!’s Ensemble has parents or grandparents that are immigrants, so they felt intimately close to this work.
“The story of immigration in this country has always been complex,” explained Lisa. “It has become a particularly fraught subject in the past four years, when we had a racist, xenophobic administration that consciously and callously caused the traumatic separation of thousands of families, among many other attempts to keep immigrants out of this country. By telling the stories of a few young people who have come to the U.S. seeking refuge from horror, I hope to further humanize and bring compassion to what may be nothing more than a news story to people in this country.”
The musical continued to evolve, develop, and grow as a result of the unique creative collaboration between the show’s creators, creative teams, and Ensemble members. The final piece to the puzzle was finding the right composer and sound for the musical.
“The show needed to sound more like the rhythms of what teens are listening to now, rather than having a more traditional musical theatre sound,” Janina Nina Trevens, Executive and Producing Artistic Director of TADA!, said. “The composer needed to have a strong foundation in hip-hop and pop, as well as a facility with world music, which is why TADA! reached out to alum Julia Jordan Kamanda. She has all the essential professional songwriting and composer qualities that were needed.”
COMMON GROUND will be TADA!’s first two-act musical, and is set to have its world premiere during an upcoming season at TADA!.
Stay tuned for more information! Read more about the music behind COMMON GROUND here.
Common Ground Cast List
YSABELLA…………………………………………..Kayla Claudio
EMMA………………………………………………….Naomi De Leon
ENSEMBLE 1/3…………………………………….Sophia Donath
ENSEMBLE 4………………………………………..Bailey Emhoff-Marina
PRENTISS FIELDS/ENSEMBLE 2……….Jaden Gonzalez
ABDOULAYE……………………………………….Jon Luc Jobson-Larkin
ENSEMBLE 6……………………………………….Hakiem Porter
ISAI……………………………………………………….Oscar Segarra Caussin
ENSEMBLE 5……………………………………….Nolan Shaffer
LEXI………………………………………………………Yealie Ulaba-Samura
SAJITA………………………………………………….Eushin Vitale