Jeniya Henry, a mentor and sophomore at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, and Israel D'Costa. His sister, Gillian, is a Daedream alum who has become its Program Director. Lucy Gellman Photos.
In the gymnasium of Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet School, Bobby Daren was coming back into fashion. Somewhere bey-ond the sea! Somewh-eeee-re waiting for me, Daren sang from a speaker, and 22-year-old Jevaughn Henry swayed from side to side, keeping time for a dozen young dancers. My lover stands on golden sands! Daren crooned. Henry leaned to the side and pointed to his left.
“One, two, three, four!” he called out. “One, two, three, four!” In the second row, five-year-old Lily Warnquist clasped her hands, extended her arms, and began to zigzag through the space. Henry’s eyes crinkled playfully at the edges as he kept the other dancers going. “Beautiful!”
Welcome to the Daedream Theater Arts Company, now in its 36th year in the New Haven Public Schools. Founded in 1988 by educator Kim Francis (read more about that here), the group has morphed from a scrappy after-school program to a tight-knit arts family, with students and mentors who often stay on for decades. This month, its 75 students are preparing for The Key, an original ensemble musical at Hill Regional Career High School.
Devised and produced by Francis, a former teacher at Mauro-Sheridan and Lincoln Bassett Community School, The Key runs May 31 and June 1 at Career, and features actors from 5 to 25 years old. This year, the group has continued to grow its footprint, welcoming new students from Elm City Montessori School, Wintergreen Magnet School, and L. W. Beecher Museum Magnet School of Arts and Sciences as well as Common Ground and Mauro-Sheridan.
Christina Forbes (in the Sailor Moon sweatshirt): “It’s just like my family now,” she said. “We can talk to each other about anything."
“The big ‘why’ for me is to treat other people with the respect and love that you would expect for yourself, and to help everyone you possibly can through whatever means,” Francis said in a phone call last Friday, labeling costumes as she spoke. “For me, this [Daedream] is the means to give kids something they might not otherwise have—to give them a sense of belonging and to affect change.”
Nowhere is that clearer, perhaps, than the annual musical. Each year, Francis starts with a loose concept for a show, and tightens it into a narrative with music, choreography and costumes. Then, program mentors and interns—all of whom are Daedream alumni—knit together a playlist and run the choreography with students, folding it into Daedream’s weekly program of improv classes, musical theater, singing lessons and after-school homework help.
As Francis began to write this year, she envisioned a convening of people “who are all different from each other,” whose physical features vary from wide, pointy ears (yes, there is a number with Baby Yoda costumes) to slippery fins to different kinds of feet. As they compete, they realize that they’ve had the answer all along—and it sounds a lot like finding the right harmony.
“They realize if they work together, they can win,” she said. Like other performances, The Key features selections from decades of music history, from Claude Debussy and Bobby Daren to Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, and Chris Brown. “The kids are really talented this year—it’s going to be a really strong performance.”
On a recent Tuesday, rehearsal was in full swing, music drifting from classrooms and corners of the gym as mentors split students by age. In one corner, the “junior pearls”—that’s the youngest students, starting at just five years old—watched Henry’s every move, running the moves to Daren’s “Beyond The Sea.”
A 22-year-old employee at Amazon by day, Henry is one of Daedream’s “lifers:” he started attending in the third grade, after stumbling into a rehearsal en route to another after-school program. Back then, his mom was working long hours at the VA Hospital in West Haven, and he needed something to do. At Daedream, he learned about musical theater and arts education.
As Henry got older, he stayed with the company. By the time he was a student at Metropolitan Business Academy, he was a mentor. Over a decade after that first day, he’s the company’s self-taught dance director.
“Every kid who comes through the program reminds me of myself,” he said. “It [Daedream] brings out their differences and makes them more comfortable to be themselves. We’re all family here.”
As Henry walked students through the song for the second time, Lily broke away from the group, gliding across the floor. She stomped once, gingerly, as if she was shaking mud from her sneakers, then wove through the gym as her peers keps dancing. Watching her, Program Director Gillian D’Costa beamed: Lily represents the newest generation of Daedream members. Her parents were once Francis’ students.
Jevaughn Henry, who grew up in the program with D'Costa.
“It’s like, a bunch of families blending to form one giant program,” she said, adding that she is grateful to have grown up with Henry, and still be working with him. “I genuinely love the kids so much—and all my friends are here.”
That feeling of family is true among students, many of whom are siblings. D’Costa’s younger brother Israel, for instance, is a member of the ensemble and a soloist on “Listen,” from the 2006 movie Dreamgirls. Her sister Xena is an intern in costume design. Henry’s sister Jeniya, a sophomore at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, is also a mentor in the program. So are brothers Zachery and Yazim Alicea, who have a penchant for acting. Many of them, over a series of interviews, described the organization as a sort of second home.
As she listened for the first strains of Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River,” Christina Forbes echoed that feeling, excited to help her peers. A freshman at Common Ground High School, Forbes joined Daedream seven years ago, when she was in the third grade at Mauro-Sheridan.
At the time, she didn’t know that she would return year after year. Now, it's a sanctuary. As she danced Tuesday, she raised one arm to the ceiling and straightened the other toward the ground, bending her back into a shallow C as the lyrics washed over the room.
Top: Zachery Alicia. Bottom: D'Costa takes a break to tie a student's shoe.
“It’s just like my family now,” she said. “We can talk to each other about anything. We’re always there for each other. When I was their age—” she motioned to younger students trying to keep time—“I was trying to learn too.”
Now, she has a cadre of students looking up to her. Darryle Boyd, a fourth grader at Mauro-Sheridan, is one of them: he praised Forbes and fellow mentors for stewarding a program he’s excited to come to after school. As he ran choreography at a recent rehearsal, he radiated that enthusiasm, breaking into a big, goofy grin as he pulled his thumbs into his chest, and then pointed back out towards Henry.
“It’s just fun!” he said after a run-through of “Ears,” an ensemble number with participants from kindergarten to college. After two years in Daedream, he wants to be an actor (and an MLB player on the Boston Red Sox, but that’s for another time).
Back on the gym’s sprawling floor, the “Pearls”—that’s students in second through fourth grade—fell into formation as they prepared for an ensemble number. As they waited for the opening keyboard, bass and vocals of “Listen,” they fell to a hush, conversations stopping mid-sentence. At the front of the group, Israel D’Costa gripped the mic.
Listen, he began, and it seemed that every ear in the house was indeed on him. To the song within my heart/A melody I start but can’t complete. Jeniya Henry emerged next to him, ready to take the group to church. Somewhere among the rows, eighth grader Ava Smith let the words move her. After six years in Daedream, she’s now a mentor in training, with “triple threat” musical theater skills.
“The dancing and acting—it’s kind of natural for me,” she said later in the afternoon. “I like acting because I get to be a different character. It’s like I get to take a break from being myself. It’s fun. With dance, I like interacting with the young kids. I can teach them things that no one taught me when I was their age.”
More information on Daedream, which offers programming Monday through Friday at Mauro-Sheridan, is available here.