Tara's Birthday

Dear Parents and Friends,

Yesterday was Tara's birthday. On March 17, 1994, we three co-founders were in the attorney’s office, signing papers that designated Tara as a school. We were to have an advisory board, with Greg as president, Laurel as secretary, and Betsy as treasurer. (We laughed about those roles at the time, since Laurel had piles of books and papers all over her room and Betsy had just made a huge error in addition in her checkbook.)

We celebrated with the students yesterday before rehearsal started. Sam played Irish jigs on his violin while several of the students did spontaneous Irish step dancing in the middle of the circle of chairs. Then AnnaMarie improvised a dance while Sam played and every one watched with delight. It was one of those wonderful Tara experiences – moving and magical and hard to express in words. And of course, there was the Tara birthday song and a rich piece of chocolate cake for all!

While the cake was being served, the three of us talked about the power of an idea. We recounted that the “idea” that has become Tara was born when Laurel shouted (“What if …”) from the bathtub to Betsy in the kitchen, where she sat wondering why she had given up everything in California to move to Boulder. Greg came up with ‘The Arts Renewed and Arisen’ (the acronym TARA) as an image for this new and transformative approach to education through the performing arts. Only later he discovered the legend of St. Patrick keeping the sacred flame (which for us is enthusiasm) alive on the Tara hill when it was threatened by the powers of darkness.

Then came the challenge of making our idea a reality. We opened as an after-school program in September 1994. Only one student pre-enrolled, but when the first session began 20 students showed up to do The Fantasticks. Although Betsy optimistically said she could get everyone a salary in two weeks, in actuality we worked for 4 years before that came true.

We think with awe and gratitude of all those who ­­– in the past and the present – have understood the vision and what it can offer to young people, and have stood by us to make Tara what it is. Without them, we would not be cutting the cake, dancing, and then moving on to work on Les Misérables.

Tara was a mighty idea, and it has become a mighty reality; one that, as Laurel says, has taken on a life of its own – and that gets her out of bed in the morning when she otherwise might not get up.

So Happy Birthday Tara, may you live a long, long life!

The Trio