An Online Course About Gallery Players’ Current Season
Wednesdays
July 23 – August 27
7:00pm – 8:30pm ET
An Online Class: 6 Sessions
Learn about the plays and musicals in Gallery Players’ 2025-2026 Season. This course will dedicate two sessions to each musical and one session to each play. We will discuss the production history of the play/musical, information about the co-creators, the dramaturgical context of the world of the play, and more. Each session will feature a multimedia seminar as well as a discussion.
About the Course
The course materials will include scripts, archival photographs, video clips, supplemental readings, and more! Participants will be sent the scripts and links to cast albums prior to each session. There are no required assignments and no required readings- but the instructor will provide plenty of materials for those who want to do some voluntary homework!
From one of our attendees:
“Gallery Players’s … classes, led by Barrie Gelles, are the most fun I had learning in years. Barrie is a phenomenal teacher and takes musical theater history very seriously. She leads every class with enthusiasm thus making class more than informative, but an absolute good time.” – Ayanna P.
About the Instructor
Dr. Barrie Gelles is a theatre scholar, educator, director, and dramaturg with a PhD in Theatre and Performance. Barrie teaches musical theatre history, theatre history, acting, directing, and public speaking at many NYC colleges; she currently teaches at Baruch College, Marymount Manhattan College, and NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. She regularly presents her research at the annual conferences of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the American Society for Theatre Research.
Barrie directs new musicals, rarely produced musicals, and re-envisioned revivals of musicals wherein she uncovers a new story while remaining loyal to the original text. At Gallery Players she has directed The Baker’s Wife, Seussical, Marry Me a Little, A New Brain, Once Upon a Mattress, Little Women, and Metamorphoses. She also created and continues to curate Overtures, a new musical developmental reading series at the Gallery Players.
About the Schedule
Sign up for the entire 6-week course ($150) or sign up for individual classes, a la carte ($35).
| Class Session | Class Topic |
| Wed, July 23 Class 1 |
Legally Blonde Part I |
| Wed, July 30 Class 2 |
Legally Blonde Part II |
| Wed, August 6 Class 3 |
Hand to God |
| Wed, August 13 Class 4 |
Intimate Apparel |
| Wed, August 20 Class 5 |
Jesus Christ Superstar Part I |
| Wed, August 27 Class 6 |
Jesus Christ Superstar Part II |
Note: We may adjust some of the class content based on student input.