Sometime in the '80s
Young April Nickell realizes that when she grows up, she wants to start a theater company that will save the world.
Fall 2000
April assistant directs a workshop in NYC where she meets an actor named Anika Larsen and they begin to collaborate relentlessly. April eventually confides her dream to Anika, who digs it.
November 2006
April directs an evening of one-acts that benefits an international relief organization, and she decides that she wants to start her theater company, like, yesterday.
January 2007
April and Anika go on a weekend retreat and hash out a mission statement, core values and a business plan. They recognize that they have no money and no members, but they're crossing their fingers that
"if you build it, they will come."
March 2007
Jaradoa Theater has its first Monthly Membership Meeting, where they have become 13 strong. Jaradoa's Founding Members are actors, directors, writers and designers.
April 2007
The Members launch Jaradoa Radio Theater, outreach for the elderly.
Fall 2007
The Members begin playwriting workshops with youth in an alternative to incarceration program, and Theater & Literacy workshops with public middle schoolers.
December 2007
Jaradoa mounts its inaugural production, Serenade, a musical written by Nils Olaf Dolven and Rachel Sheinkin.
April 2008
The Members bring Play On! to 5th graders at P.S. 206 in East Harlem, where this program is the students' Reading and Writing Unit for the month.
May 2008
Jaradoa produces its first straight play, a two-hander by Russell Sharman called The Small of Her Back.
June 2008
Jaradoa's second annual spring fundraiser, now dubbed the Jaradoa Jam, features plays written by students at P.S. 206 (performed by them and the Members), an abridged version of the radio play performed at nursing homes and senior centers around the city, a Read Aloud for the audience, songs from Serenade and an excerpt from The Small of Her Back, and photos and video footage of Jaradoan Members and volunteers in the community gettin' their serve on.
July 2008
Jaradoa goes national! Members bring outreach to children and the elderly in cities like Charlotte, Birmingham, Mobile and Schenectady.
Fall 2008
Jaradoa begins to forge partnerships with like-minded organizations such as Arts For All and Revolucion Latina.
January 2009
Members launch Jaradoa Jumpstart, a workshop that gives college and high school students the lowdown on the nuts and bolts of a life in the NYC theater biz.
