Pied Piper Childrens Theater

The Pied Piper Children's Theatre of NYC was founded at Holy Trinity Church, Inwood in 1999 by Reinaldo 'Rey-Rey' Martinez-Cubero, the theatre's current Executive and Artistic Director. During a long search for a possible venue, Rey-Rey came upon the theare space at Holy Trinity Church, with it; s rundown stage that at the time was used as storage for folding chairs, lumber, and oversized toys of a children's indoor playgoup. the reverend Johanna-Karwen Johannson, herself a former performing artist who had wanted to start arts programming and community outreach through theatre at the church, iinvited Rey-Rey to give a presentation to the vestry, The vicar, wardens and vestry of Holy trinity Church, Inwood aprovved the program and the Pied Piper Children's Theatre of NYC ( PPCT ) resented its first production, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, in october 1999 with a cast of 27 children ages 5 to 13. Since then, over five hundred and fifty children have participated in the program. This has created a strong community of famileios from differenct income levels and ethnic backgrounds, in 2003, Rey-rey developed the Delphi Theatre as a branch of PPCT in order to present the production involving professional performers, adults from the community and the participants of Pied Piper Theatre Sutton Foster, award winning Broadway performer and Rey-rey's long time friendm, took an interest and watched the theatre's progress from its begininngn. Impressed with the theatre's fast develpment, she decided to co-porduce and star in a benefit concert veersion of SNOOPY to commemorate the theatre's 5th anniversary. The concert took place on Monday, April 12th, 2004 at the Perer Norton Symhony Space, and featured an all-star Broadway cast including christian Borle, Ann Harrada, Deven May, Hunter Foster, and Jennifer Cody, as well as a chous of PPCT participants.