Gigi Farachi Harris wasn’t satisfied. She eyed the young performers as they worked through their routine. Singers flanked the group, three on a side. Two rappers stalked the middle ground, as dancers swayed and shimmied and a few executed daring back flips.
Harris stopped the music. She pointed to a knot of youngsters in the back of the makeshift rehearsal hall. “Walk with intention,” she commanded. Harris illustrated her words with a purposeful prowl that brought smiles to the faces of the members of the Happiness Club.
Order eventually emerged, and the performers coalesced into a rhythmic unit that resounded joyously throughout the Paul Revere Fieldhouse on Irving Park Road in Chicago.
Harris, 41, of Schaumburg is the founder and creative director of the Happiness Club, a critically acclaimed musical group made of up kids ages 6 to 17 who write and perform their own material.
“The group is about basic values, about common sense, about happiness,” Harris said.
In many ways, the Happiness Club is a reflection of Harris and her goals. Harris has overcome personal and professional obstacles. A sense of wanting more from life–that undefinable quality of what makes things right and good with the world–is evident in her efforts in shaping the musical club.
“We care about making a difference and changing conditions,” Harris said.
Representing a racial rainbow and a mix of economic backgrounds, the Happiness Club recently performed during the opening ceremonies at the 1997 National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. The 50 children, from Chicago and the suburbs, keep a hectic schedule of nearly 60 performances a year, with rehearsals each Sunday.
The group has performed at Taste of Chicago, the Skyline Theater with Ben Vereen, and the Chicago Theatre. They’ve also appeared at the United Center, Comiskey Park, the Arlington International Racecourse and Lambs Farm in Libertyville. They regularly put on shows at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago and area hospitals and work with the Chicago Police Department’s DARE program, an anti-drug effort.
The children have also performed on TV and for WSNS-TV (Channel 40) at special events. WSNS producer Louise Frank said it wasn’t just the club members’ talent for writing and performing that makes them special.
“I was particularly impressed with their pervasive good attitude and positive feelings, both in their music and performances, and in their `backstage’ behavior,” said Frank.
In a letter to Harris, the Chicago White Sox commented that the group members have “so much exuberance and energy that they have drawn hundreds of kids into their aura” at the Kaleidoscope Center at Comiskey Park.
Though the Happiness Club came into being six years ago, its seed was planted many years before, just after Harris graduated with a degree in theater and art from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“A friend from college was murdered,” Harris said. “She was from the Robert Taylor Homes (public housing project in Chicago) and she told me about the situation there, but it never seemed real to me. She was home only a few weeks and was killed in a gang crossfire.
“I learned there are a lot of good people in bad situations,” Harris said. “And I knew I had a chance to make a difference.”
Harris, who grew up in Glenview, helped found Child’s Play with a group of actors who met in Champaign. Harrison toured with the acting troupe, which traveled internationally performing works written by children, from 1978 to 1982. But then she was faced with another challenge.
Harris is a slim, energetic woman with a huge smile. She is rarely still, a condition that is as remarkable as it is a reaction to a two-year illness, a glandular disorder that nearly killed her.
“I used to be very active, but after that (illness) everything came to a halt,” she said.
It took numerous hospital stays and, finally, alternative treatment in Switzerland. Harris recovered, although she had to give up performing.
Harris might have been sidelined, but she swiftly became active behind the scenes. She also got married; husband Jerry is a composer and computer analyst. To make ends meet, she began teaching theater and art at a small private Montessori school in Mt. Prospect. Harris quickly organized her young students into an acting troupe. In 1991, the school group won a national competition for its student-written and performed play “The Way To Happiness.”
As part of their winning project, the northwest suburban youngsters, ages 6 through 10, performed at community centers in inner-city neighborhoods.
The audiences responded in a warm and wonderful way. “There was no color, no difference,” Harris said. “And so many kids in the city wanted to be involved.”
That’s when Harris decided to start a new group. “This one would be more musical, it would be based on doing the right thing, and it would bring together kids from the city and suburbs,” she said.
She posted fliers at performance venues; the initial group was 10 kids. The group is now at 50 and the recruitment process is ongoing. Auditions are held each Sunday if there are kids present to tryout. The prospective members have to perform before all of the kids and parents, though Harris makes the final decision.
The Happiness Club’s motto is “Kids Make Values Cool.” Its members, drawn from the suburbs and neighborhoods throughout the city, reflect the diversity of the region, but all have in common certain values and attitudes.
Harris delivers her message by getting the kids to work hard together toward a common goal and through the positive messages in their songs.
“It is an adjustment for the kids, especially those from the suburbs,” who may not have had an opportunity to deal with students from different social, economic and racial backgrounds, she said. “But we have a common purpose: to contribute to society,” Harris said. “Young people need to be able to contribute, to be taken seriously.”
Becca Arends, 15, of Prospect Heights has performed with the group for five years. Harris spotted her at a dance recital and asked her to audition. “I’m the ballet dancer,” said Arends, a sophomore at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights.
Arends has also studied jazz dancing and has incorporated hip-hop into her repertoire. “I love the performing,” she said. “I love working with the other kids, but I love the positive message most of all.”
“My kids loved this from day one,” said Emily Diaz, 37, who lives on Chicago’s Northwest Side. She and her two daughters, Emily, 13, and Samantha, 9, were visiting the adjacent park last summer, heard the music from the fieldhouse and decided to investigate.
“The kids really learn values,” she said. “And they communicate those values to others through song and dance.”
On a recent Sunday, the rehearsal had, because of a conflict in the schedule, been moved from the theater to the fieldhouse gym. The musical assault from loudspeakers on either side of the gym was multiplied by the acoustics.
Kids in overalls, leggings or baggy jeans, wearing T-shirts and sweatshirts in bright hues, their colorful caps askew, bounced, jumped, danced and sang, perfecting the routines for original songs including “THC” (which stands for The Happiness Club), “Children For the Future” and “It Takes a Village.”
Harris–dressed in boots, a short, brown skirt, a sweater and embroidered vest, and her blond hair tied up with an orange scarf–was a whirlwind of motion, stomping, skipping, waving and twirling.
Parents spilled in from the hallway, some assisting with the equipment, some setting up a pizza lunch. Everyone offered the performers encouraging shouts of “Smile” and “Energy.”
Maureen Shulman, 41, of Chicago has three daughters in the club, is on the board of directors and uses her skills as a publicist to help out the not-for-profit group. “It’s a huge commitment to give up every Sunday,” Shulman said, “but my kids love it.” The performers–and their parents–put in an estimated 350 hours each year for rehearsals and performances.
More is involved, however, than just time. “The girls like the dancing and the singing, but they also like the diversity of the group,” Shulman said. Meeting others from different backgrounds and different perspectives has taught her daughters to accept people for who they are, Shulman said.
John Washington, 16, a featured singer and dancer, is a junior at Orr High School on the West Side of Chicago. “I didn’t like the club at first,” he said. “They didn’t do the same kind of dance I did, but I eventually made it my own style.”
According to Harris, Washington brought his brand of James Brown-inspired street dancing and helped teach it to the suburban kids, and suburban kids with dance training have helped instill an appreciation for ballet and jazz.
“The kids work so hard,” said Carolyn Leach of Bellwood. Her daughter Ashley, 7, wearing a pink T-shirt, said shyly, “It’s really a lot of fun,” before dashing back to rehearsals.
The Happiness Club has produced its own video, “Kids Make Values Cool” (A&G Productions; $14.99). Harris and the group are also negotiating with WTTW and its production facility to produce a weekly television show that would focus on issues important to children and teens.
As exciting as that prospect is, many of the performers have already appeared on television numerous times. Melissa Gonzalez, 16, of Chicago, who joined the Happiness Club at its inception, plays Gabby on the PBS series “Ghostwriters.” Other members have worked in local television productions, including “There Are No Children Here,” and in a number of theatrical presentations, among them “Showboat” and “That’s Christmas” with Sandy Duncan.
“Each kid has a special talent,” said Harris. “There is the opportunity to sing and dance, and to write songs.”
The volunteer staff brings a wealth of experience to the Happiness Club. A previous choreographer worked for the Joffrey Ballet; the current choreographer is Gloria Quinlan of Chicago, whose credits include the ESPN youth-oriented series “Crunch.” Music director is Sasha Gerritson of Chicago, who also directs the Chicago Children’s Choir. Harris and her crew have also managed to attract some heavy-duty sponsors–Ronald McDonald House, Eli’s Cheesecake Co., Bank of America, United Airlines, Edwardo’s Pizza, among others–to help offset a $50,000 annual budget.
“I think we will be looking at double that amount next year,” Harris said. She would like to be able to pay staff members, provide training for the singers and dancers, plus offer assistance toward more academic pursuits, such as tutoring in writing and literacy.
Harris admitted that the Happiness Club has turned into a full-time job. Although she still teaches acting/theater at private schools (including the Chicagoland Achievement Academy in Des Plaines), offers private coaching and can usually be tracked down only by pager, she is satisfied by the way things have worked out.
“I have always worked in children’s theater,” she said. “This is what I wanted to do.”
