Gabriella Perez - Allendale Columbia
By: Maureen McGuire
Updated: October 20, 2009
Gabriella Perez turns heads whenever she's on stage. She wowed the crowd performing as Diana Moralez in A Chorus Line. That was at the Allendale Columbia school last November.
"It was just very exciting to play one of my dream roles in high school, with all my friends," said Gabby, who also has a lead in the school's upcoming production. Much of her time is spent in rehearsal now, tot to mention dance lessons, voice lessons, and an academic schedule that puts her at the top of the class.
She lives, breathes, and eats theater, and she gets plenty of it in her hometown.
"We're kind of spoiled for a city so small, with the Eastman Theater down the street, it's a nationally known school," said Gabby. "Auditorium Theater, Geva, it's incredible regional theater, The Color purple was just here. Blackfriars is a great theater."
"There's something inside, there's a little fire, that she won't quit until she gets her dream which is to be on Broadway," said Jeannie Hines-Clinton, the drama director. "You just kind of go wow, and then she opens her mouth, to sing and you go wow, and then she acts, wow! She's everything all in one."
Gabby will take all this experience with her when she heads to college next fall. She'll study musical theater----with her heart and her soul set on the Big Apple. She can almost taste her first big break.
"Audition for every show I can, hopefully sign with an agency, see where I go. National tours, hopefully Broadway. We'll see."
