Mara McEwin is the Artistic Director of Treehouse Shakers, a non-profit dance and theater company, which she co-founded with choreographer, Emily Bunning. Since 1997, she has written, directed and sometimes acted in all of Treehouse Shakers’ eleven dance-plays. Treehouse Shakers currently has four dance-plays on a rotating tour and have performed at such notable venues as The United Nations (New York, NY), The Aronoff Center (Cincinatti, OH), Peter Jay Sharp Theater (New York, NY) Westhampton Beach Playhouse (L.I., NY), Alden Theater (McLean, VA) Tribeca Film Festival (New York, NY), Paramount Theater (Peekskill, NY), Jacob’s Pillow (Becket, MA), among numerous other performance venues. Treehouse Shakers has been awarded, “The Best of Manhattan” by The New York Press and been acclaimed by such notable publications as The New York Times, Urban Baby Daily, New York Press, Time Out New York, Big Apple Parent, and New York Magazine.

In 1997 I co-founded Treehouse Shakers, a dance and theater company, with my childhood best friend, Emily Bunning. We had spent our childhood in Wyoming, climbing a Treehouse that Emily’s great aunt, had constructed inside an old gnarled tree. In those days we blended our imaginative play with songs, stories that had never ending sagas and characters, and movement from our latest dance lessons. We entered a magical world when we climbed that tree house, one that we stepped back into every time we played.

Emily and I briefly collaborated at Stephens College in Missouri. We did indeed attend the same college. I majored in theater and Emily majored in dance. In our senior year we melded a series of female centric poems, with acting and movement. The performance was an hour, and we used ten of our peers to perform. It felt like we had accomplished something different. Experimental. It was exhilarating.

At Stephens I began to see myself as someone who would one day run a theater company. Yes, I loved acting, but I also loved writing, directing, producing, creating and experimenting. In my freshman year I asked the head of the theater department for an independent study on the business of running a theater company.  The class never materialized, but the dream was beginning to take shape. The summer before graduation, at summer stock, I met Rebecca Morgan, the Artistic Director of Southwest Children’s Theater Productions in Santa Fe, NM. When I graduated I became her assistant. Rebecca so generously taught me about running a theater: establishing a board, grant writing, touring locally and teaching. I taught theater to grades kindergarten through sixth grade, directed several performances with the students, and toured with the company. I loved every minute of working with Rebecca. By the end of that year, Rebecca encouraged me to make a leap either to L.A. or to N.Y.C.  She wanted me to have the chance of pursuing something bigger. At the age of twenty-two I moved to New York City. Emily had already moved to the city the year before to pursue a career as a modern dancer.

When I arrived in the big apple, I assumed, as every other new performer assumes, I would immediately find success. Perhaps I thought it would be tough for the first month, but by month two success would be hammering at my door. Needless to say, I didn’t make it very far that first year. The first show I was cast in was a children’s show in the village and was so artistically devoid and downright ridiculous that the director reused the blocking from a previous show, chain-smoked the entire rehearsal process, and occasionally laid on the steps of the stage with one angry hang-over.

As I auditioned for casting directors, did my share of student films, and ritually sent in my headshots, I never let go of the dream I had for making my own company. Emily and I began discussing the possibility of pursuing this dream company together. We would work as collaborators, and make something that felt uniquely our own. Sitting in a diner in Midtown, we came up with our company name as an homage to our childhood. By August of 1997 we began to work on our first performance. We would return to our college performance model and meld modern dance with a fully realized theatrical script. We chose a play that I had written in New Mexico, Dance of My Daughter. Emily expertly dissected and glued the piece together with movement. Performed by five dancers and three actors, the dance became the blocking, the emotional undertones, and the visual expression for the imagery of the words. We experimented with narrative structure through movement, writing styles, and visual projections. We performed the piece for a two-week run at Ensemble Studio Theater, a small theater in Hell’s Kitchen that we rented. It was exciting, terrifying and the beginning of our collaborative work as adults.

By 1999 we were struggling to survive as a New York City based company. We were broke, couldn’t afford a decent rehearsal space, and were constantly wondering what we were doing. That same summer I helped co-found a kids’ theater festival on the Lower East Side called, Niño Nada with Adam Koplan. The children’s festival was a spin-off of the larger festival produced by Aaron Beall of  Todo Con Nada. The festival’s kick off was an all day rock concert for kids at the Bowery Ballroom. At this time Laurie Berkner and Dan Zanes weren’t household names, instead we booked downtown bands to play. We filled the Bowery with families jamming to punk, alternative, reggae and folk. For the rest of the festival we sought companies of all shapes and sizes, asking them to make interesting and dynamic works for young people. The more I looked over the submissions, the more I thought that Treehouse should create a piece. Emily agreed. There wasn’t, as far as we could tell, dance being made specifically for young people. We could blend story and dance, giving many audience members an introduction into modern dance, while keeping a theatrical story, which was an easier literal connection. We soon created a children’s show about the letter O in search of her true identity, Flying Through Rainbows. Performed by three dancers (including Emily) and myself as the narrator, we added movement, painting, and jazz. The New York Times wrote our first review, “Treehouse Shakers literally creates colorful adventures. It makes you long for more!” That summer, without realizing it, we transformed into the company we are now. That fall, we booked Flying Through Rainbows at Rye Arts Center, a friend happened to be on their board and recommended us, and a New York Family Homeless Shelter, where we volunteered through the non-profit organization, Art Start. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to energize the company.

We began to look for other performance company models to follow, but there were only bits and pieces to be found. We turned to artist-supported organizations for guidance. We became members of The Field, and Dance Theater Workshop, both of whom became our fiscal umbrellas so that we could receive donations. We also joined ART New York. All three organizations helped sustain Treehouse Shakers through company building workshops, lectures and performance opportunities. In 2002 we began the process of becoming a non-profit. We were fortunate in finding someone who had recently been given a grant to help companies, such as ourselves, attain non-profit status. We began the process of securing our board members. Our original three board members soon grew into nine (one of which was Claire Winters). Our performance company grew into fourteen dedicated members. We often wondered if our company would fall apart. Were we doing too much for too little reward? Yet, we continued. We worked on honing our creative process and made rehearsal a permanent part of our week. In twelve years we have created eleven original dance-plays for adults and young audiences.

In 2004 a choreographer/dancer friend suggested we consider touring. He had become the general manager for another children’s touring company and told us we could increase our audiences and help ourselves financially by performing at more venues. In 2005 we attended our first booking conference at the International Performing Arts for Young Audiences. IPAY is a collection of presenters and performers from all over the world who are focused on making works for young audiences and teens. We were immediately impressed with how big of a creative world we were really in. We found peers who would inspire us creatively, theater executives, presenters, and festival directors who were dedicated to presenting artistically rich works helping to build sophisticated future audiences. The world of children’s theater, music and dance, is very much a serious artistic business.

We now have a rotating tour of four original dance-plays across the nation and Canada for teens and young audiences including; Animal Rhythms, Desert Travels, Coyote’s Dance and Let’s Talk About IT! We produce a spring New York season mostly at The Ailey Citigroup Theater. Last spring we premiered our new show for teens, Let’s Talk About IT!, at Playwright Horizon’s more intimate Peter Jay Sharp Theater on 42^nd Street. We teach artist residencies and workshops for all ages and staff developments to teachers and college students. Our performers are compensated for their work, and we have a permanent rehearsal space. We also attend more theater booking conferences as we continue to expand our tours.

Even now, after twelve years, we wonder when success will knock at our rehearsal door. We have had to adjust to the recession like everyone else as funding has been cut and theaters have pulled back on their spending. We are always striving for the next creative undertaking, fine-tuning current shows, and working on company building strategies. We want to tour the international European festivals, expand our block bookings, and increase our performers’ rehearsal stipends and performance pay. Overall, though, the company has become who we are, how we express ourselves, and has its own artistic entity. At its core are Emily and I still playing in our childhood Treehouse and loving every creative minute.

Top photo by Giulia Piccaro

Second photo by Mercedes McAndrew