We were lucky to catch up with Barbara Remus recently and have shared our conversation below.

Barbara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission is primarily to help people, kids as well as adults, to establish their confidence in being who they truly are, to find a voice for themselves and to get free from judgments of others. As a theater manager of a small, but as I find, meaningful and real, off off theater, I am surrounded but people of different ages and talents every single day, which shows me how incredibly different every human being, and that from an early age. For nobody there’s that “one recipe” that will “cure” them all, you have to tweak and try and see what works best for any individual. The older we get, the harder it sometimes is to stay flexible but also to stay true to yourself as society expects us all to be a certain way. It was the same with me. For years I pursued a career that I was never truly happy in, I really tried to fit in, listened often more to others than to my own inner voice. Yes, I often felt like an alien, simply not belonging where I was and trying to pretend, but it wasn’t easy. Finding the theater was a game changer for me. When I stepped into the Galli Theater NY, I knew “I had arrived”. I could finally live my creative life, I didn’t have to hide my true self. I could be who I really am, and am living this now with all my passion. It was extremely liberating, and I have to say also energizing. I love what I am doing daily with all my heart.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a kid I loved fantasy and dress up games, I performed in theater companies and at school, a sang in a choir, danced, but never had any support in pursuing this as a career. Hence, I chose to become a scientist right after school, and went as far as getting my PhD, doing a postdoc etc. Lab work is somehow creative, you also learn a lot of managing skills, multi-tasking and you are surrounded by people of different nationalities, which is beautiful. However, I was never really happy with where I was. When I stepped into the Galli Theater NY, the theater I manage and own now myself, I “had arrived”. I pursued both careers, the scientist as well as being an artist for 5 years in parallel (mainly because of financial reasons), and then in 2019, it was Friday, the 13th of September, I finally said goodbye to my lab job for good and devoted my life completely to the theater work. Exactly 6 months later, Friday the 13th of March Covid hit, and I was left in complete uncertainty. Being an artist at that time in NYC was hard, however there was never a time where I thought, I needed to give up. I taught acting classes to kids through Zoom every single day, we performed our plays through Zoom and Social Media. This all kept me going. Covid was actually helping me to pursue my passion, as during this time, I really reflected what is the most important thing for me in life.
I made use of “all that free time” and trained to not only become a better actress but also to become a coach for adults, next to being a trainer/coach for children. With children we mainly work on finding their own voices and confidence on stage in creating a play together with them. Our approach is playful and through encouragement, never pressure. It’s similar for the adults workshops, just that we do not work on a play with them. However instead of sitting down and just giving them a speech about for instance “how to present yourself” or “how to we aware of your body language” , we are trying to act everything out with them, so that their bodies and minds remember this when they need to use it “in real life”. We use a lot of improv elements in our trainings, which are particularly effective in training people’s intuition, creativity, confidence and persuasiveness which not only they will benefit from as individuals but also their business. In the past years I gave coaching and workshops sessions to companies like Allianz, Merck, Amazon, just to name a few, which were all extremely successful.

I think, I am most proud of my team, which consists after just 2.5 years now of now nine extremely talented, gifted, beautiful and kindhearted young people from all over the world, that all have something to bring to the table. I wouldn’t be able to run Galli Theater NY without them, they really make my world go around. Sometimes I really have to pinch myself, how I got so lucky that they all found their way into my theater. Not only do we creative together, but we also help each other grow as individuals as well as artists. I and we all are extremely lucky to have this in our lives. The business has grown tremendously since 2021, half of us are teaching children almost on a daily basis, we perform every single weekend our beautiful modern adaptations of classical fairytales which are both fun and educative, we host birthday parties, we give workshops for kids as well as adults, and last but certainly not least we have a beautiful program called “Dr Fairytale”, where we bring our plays to hospitals to perform this in front of cancer sick children, which brings even more meaning to our lives.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think that staying true to myself really helped me to help build up my reputation. People can tell if one is doing something from the heart and out of persuasion, or if you are doing something “just for the money”. We are a non-profit theater, and hence money is often tight, but this does not make me give less, it’s actually the opposite. I do my job 24/7, it’s the first thing I think of when I wake up and the last when I go to bed. I truly love what I am doing and it doesn’t even feel like “work”, as it is more my “purpose” in life. People come to me often, asking where I take the energy from that they can feel around me. It comes from within and again from the people around me that love what they are doing as much as I do.
On a second thought, I am also surrounded by other, very wonderful, business owners and friends, mainly women actually, that are my support system. We help each other, when help is needed, we pull each other up. There is no jealousy or negative thoughts involved, it’s about helping each other to grow, to become “a better person”. They also tell people about my business, and word of mouth has always been the best advertisement strategy for Galli Theater NY.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As a kid I was definitely under the wing of my parents, and wanted to do everything to please them, and was always struggling with my inner rebel, and often lived it. When I left home at the age of 19, my father (thankfully) said, young people should go as far out into the world and leave their homes to become their true selfs. I definitely felt this and left Germany and have been living in the US since 2001 now. The bond to my parents was and is still pretty strong but over time, I really became myself. I had endless discussions about the choices I made in life with my parents, my partners and friends, but for years now, I finally learned to listen to my own voice and pursue my purpose in life. It’s a total game changer. I stopped playing “roles” for other people’s benefits, I only “play” the ones I choose myself. It’s extremely liberating, and I try to teach this to the people around me, in life as well as in my workshops.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gallitheaternyc.com
• Instagram: gallitherny
• Facebook: Galli Theater New York
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-remus-phd-b3250065/