Groans of bittersweet recognition fill the room as Jim Merillat ticks off the correct answers, one by one. “Don’t worry, we’ve had people win this thing with only three right answers,” he says, smiling mischievously.

Merillat, the vice president of sales and marketing for Music Theatre International (MTI), has just quizzed the crowd of music and drama educators with 10 trivia questions from shows distributed by his licensing agency, one of the nation’s largest. Each question came accompanied by a sample of a corresponding show tune, emanating from Merillat’s laptop. He grins as the questions elicit either exclamations of joy or it’s-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue agony. These teachers would never tolerate such unruly behavior from their own students, but this is summer vacation—and besides, none of their students are here to see them.

Painter Earl Lehman (right) helps workshop guests grasp the relationship between the visual and dramatic arts.

The MTI quiz was one of many highlights of a three-day New York City teacher workshop hosted by Broadway Classroom this past July. About 50 educators from around the country met at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts to learn new teaching methods and glean wisdom from a variety of theater professionals. Broadway Classroom, which brings in student groups to watch hit shows and learn the tricks of the trade from theater pros, shifted its focus to teachers for the first time with the debut of the Broadway Teaching Lab. Workshop guests met with experts in several creative fields over the course of Thursday through Saturday and caught four popular shows: Contact; Kiss Me, Kate; Rent and De La Guarda. The teaching lab also adopted the informal theme of putting the teachers in their students’ shoes—to help identify obstacles a student may encounter while learning.

Karen Kain, a kindergarten teacher from Collingswood, New Jersey, who directs middle and high school shows, nailed the top quiz score with five correct answers, and partial credit on a sixth. Her prize? A certificate for a free licensed show from MTI, which can range in price from $400 to $1,000. Second- and third-place finishers walk away with free software rentals and piles of popular cast recordings. “I’m thrilled,” says Kain, noting she hasn’t decided how she and her teaching partner will redeem the coupon. “If we weren’t going to do an MTI show before, we certainly are now.”

Audience members knew they were in for a treat Friday morning when Merillat and John Prignano, director of non-Equity rentals for MTI, passed out goodie bags for them to collect a smorgasbord of sample products and compact discs. Among these were samples of the company’s Broadway Junior Collection, which features such shows as Guys And Dolls and Fiddler On The Roof edited to an hour in length for younger students—the music transposed to keys more manageable for children. The Broadway Junior packages also contain student libretto books, rehearsal CDs with children singers, books of cross-curricular activities and a host of other materials, all of which the buyers keep, should they want to perform the show again down the road.

After a brief break, the group of educators listened as four young composers and lyricists recounted their experiences writing for musical theater. They specifically pondered how their work gets altered and changed by committee, with writing independently remaining a rare luxury. Andrew Lippa (Manhattan Theatre Club’s The Wild Party), Jeanine Tesori (Violet), Dan Messe (the musical group Hem) and Glenn Slater (several upcoming Disney movies) all performed or played recordings of their work, much to the delight of the audience.

Thursday’s activities were highlighted by a session called “Break It Down,” in which a poet, a dancer and a painter led the group through a series of improvisational exercises, to emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of the dramatic arts. The exercises included word association, meditation, skits and some amateur choreography, which did wonders for lowering defenses and creating trust among strangers coming together for the first time. The session was organized by the Pennsylvania-based PCA Arts in Education Partnership, which promotes the collaborative approach to arts in schools, led by the partnership’s regional director, Catherine Richmond-Cullen. Also on Thursday, the educators met at the Hard Rock Café for a roundtable discussion with the producers and cast of Rent, both prior to and following a performance of the show.

Broadway Classroom has become one of the largest educational groups on Broadway in its year and a half of existence, partnering with most of the popular shows. Gordon Greenberg, director of Broadway Classroom, says the teaching lab will become an annual summer event. “It’s sort of our chance to give back to the community, to bring back to their students, to inspire them,” he says. “Not every school has the wherewithal to bring a group here.”

To learn more about Broadway Classroom, contact them at 800-334-845; fax: 212-541-4892; website: www.broadwayclassroom.com. To learn more about Music Theater International, contact MTI at 421 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019; telephone: 212-541-4684; fax: 212-397-4684; e-mail: licensing@mtishows.com; website: www.mtishows.com. For more information about PCA Arts in Education Partnership, contact the organization at 1200 Line Street, Archbald, PA, 18403; telephone: 570-876-9223; fax: 570-876-8661.