She had a prolific run teaching theater arts at Oakton High School for 19 years in Fairfax County, Virginia.
On Monday night, Vanessa Lock Gelinas will be one of two nationwide recipients of the Inspiring Teacher Award at the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, also known as The Jimmy Awards, hosted by Corbin Bleu (“High School Musical”) at the Minskoff Theatre in New York City.
“It was a complete shock,” Gelinas told WTOP. “I didn’t even know that Josh [Lemons], my student from last year, nominated me. I said to my husband, ‘Do you think this is a spam email? Could this really be a true thing?’ But it is and it’s such an honor. Out of 92 nominations, they picked two teachers to be recognized, so I was just really touched. … They’ll show a video and I’ll come on stage and do some sort of celebratory wave.”
Two local students will also compete after emerging from the regional Brandon Victor Dixon Awards held earlier this month at D.C.’s National Theatre. Senior Ian Rubin won Best Actor for “Matilda: The Musical” at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland, while Abby Lyons won Best Actress for “Mamma Mia!” at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia. She can’t attend, so the alternate is Isabella Jackson of “Sister Act” at Fairfax High School.
“It was a stiff competition,” Gelinas said. “This town has some incredible talent, so how those judges had to narrow it down, I know that it was very difficult. All of the kids, I was lucky enough to work with them and help coach them a little bit in their monologue process in the competition … just really wonderful, well-rounded students from incredible local programs.”
Gelinas has directed major productions at the 1,200-seat theater, which is staged in a classic proscenium.
“I was really lucky to work with such an incredible performing arts team, our choral director, orchestra teacher and our band director,” Gelinas said. “Some highlights were ‘The Pirates of Penzance,’ ‘Les Miserables,’ ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ those were some big ones that, when it was over, we were like, ‘Wow, we made that happen!’ I definitely think one of my [favorites] was ‘Titanic: The Musical’ … how epic that production was.”
Last year, she directed “The Addams Family,” which won Best Musical at the 2022 Brandon Victor Dixon Awards.
“It was such a joy, especially because we had just come out of COVID where we hadn’t been able to do a musical for two years, so [there was] energy throughout the entire process, but also just a fun show to be directing,” Gelinas said. “To have the opportunity for the kids to then go perform at the National Theatre and do the big opening number [at the Brandon Victor Dixon Awards], that’s a memory that you’ll never get to take away from those kids.”
Gelinas recently handed the theater program over to Samantha Jalajel, but she remains a school administrator.
“I am there for sage wisdom and advice to the very talented young lady who took my place and is going to do great things with that program,” Gelinas said. “I gave her a big hug and I said, ‘You did it!’ … Fairfax County has a very strong theater community. They went from saying ‘STEM’ to ‘STEAM,’ making sure that the arts is something that was included. Not every kid is a math kid or a science kid, you’ve also got these incredible artists.”
Watch the livestream here at 7:30 p.m.
Listen to our full conversation here.
