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| Relani Gerami during one of the workshops |
Size, or at least, the size of the stage a performer commands does matter: Relana Gerami spent the weekend doing what she loves, talking musical-theater shop, but instead of doing it with her middle school students in League City, Texas, she was doing it with Tony and Emmy Award winners in New York City.
Gerami and the seven other teachers named best youth musical-theater educators in the country by Music Theatre International (MTI), a theatrical licensing agency, were honored by Broadway Welcomes America’s Teachers at The First Freddie G. Theatre Experience in New York City.
Gerami’s cast of twenty-three kids, all students at her own Bay Area
Theatre and Voice Academy (BATAVA) wowed their way through a 15-minute
segment of Alice in Wonderland at this year’s Junior Theatre
Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. The January performance won them
Outstanding Production and MTI surprised Gerami with the news that she
had been chosen as one of their top eight national educators.
“We
truly had no expectations,” Gerami told Hair Balls, pointing out that
not only was this their first time at the festival, they were competing
with 50 other theater groups. “We didn’t know if our jazz shoes would
fly, or if the stage would be at all the size of our stage at home.”
As it turned out, the dimensions of the stage were almost exactly the
same as the one back home in League City. She shared they were “very
lucky” with that stage.
However, Gerami is not at all modest about the hard work that prepared
her kids to compete with the best in the country.
“Gosh, the
kids worked so hard, and rehearsed so much; they really did hit every
count.” Her voice softened even more when she shared how impressed one
of the judges was with the three- and four-part harmonies achieved by
her choir of nine-to-sixteen-year-olds. “These kids, they weren’t
screaming. You could hear the discipline in their voices, the
determination.”
Determination along with leadership and
communication skills is what Gerami strives to teach to her students
along with musical theatre.
A vocal performance major from the
University of Houston Gerami calls herself an educator at heart,
enjoying doing everything she can so her kids go from timid and quiet to
“holding their heads high and so confident, you can’t make them shut
up!”
Although the opening number of the teacher’s Experience was a
special Friday night cocktail reception, on the phone last week Gerami
bubbled with the anticipation of learning from the Broadway Masters
themselves what she’s been doing right and what new lessons she could
bring home to her students.
In e-mailed follow-up questions, she
shared that the roundtable discussions led by the Masters on
choreography, acting, directing, and musical styles were “very laid back
and very personal” and that she “learned from them all.”
“Them
all” included multiple award-winning Hairspray‘s Marc Shaiman and
Scott Wittman, A Chorus Line‘s Baayork Lee, and Jeff Calhoun, of
Grey Gardens fame.
Gerami is excited by the feedback received at this sessions and
appreciative of the industry insight shared by MTI’s Chairman Freddie
Gershon. “I have more knowledge on how the industry operates on that
type of professional level,” she said.
She shared that Saturday night the eight teachers celebrated big
with what else? Mary Poppins and an “amazing” backstage tour of
the New Amsterdam Theatre.
But the best moment of the weekend?
“I really loved working with
Mark Shaiman and Scott Wittman. I was given a student I had never met
and a song I didn’t know. I had to music-direct this little girl on the
vocals in front of the group and received feedback from these guys! It
was awesome!”
Gerami founded BATAVA three and a half years ago
with the support of some of her students’ parents. “Thank God for people
that believe in you. Thank God for being able to work and it be what I
love to do.”
Relana Gerami’s expectations have shot as high as
the harmonies of a choir of fourteen-year old boys.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.