8/29/2025
Education and Outreach
Bishop Gorman's Elena Ferrante-Martin (center) poses with Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards hosts Keith Thompson (left) and Clint Holmes after receiving the 2024 Award for Best Direction.
Twenty five years ago, New York-based actress Elena Ferrante-Martin took a role in Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus on the Las Vegas Strip. She couldn’t have known then how much this town would change her life – or how much she would impact its theater community.
This summer, Ferrante-Martin received an Inspiring Teacher Award at this year’s Jimmy Awards at the Minskoff Theatre in New York City. The prestigious honor is presented to just two teachers nationwide each year, a tribute to the mark Ferrante-Martin made during her two-plus-decades at Bishop Gorman High School.
“I'm very humbled, very appreciative, very happy – all those emotions,” said Ferrante-Martin, who recently retired as Bishop Gorman’s Director of Performing Arts. “But my first reaction was tears of joy, because it came as such a surprise. It was very unexpected.”
In keeping with tradition, this year’s Jimmy Awards also spotlighted more than 100 of the nation’s top high school student performers, including Chris Hayes from Las Vegas Academy of the Arts – who went on to win the Jimmys’ Best Performance by an Actor award – and Marie Muñoz of Bishop Gorman.
That duo clinched their trips to New York by being named Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress, respectively, at this year’s Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards at The Smith Center.
Muñoz, a recent graduate who spent her high school years learning from Ferrante-Martin at Bishop Gorman, returned to the Jimmys for the second straight year after participating in the 2024 event alongside fellow Gorman student Luke Martin – Ferrante-Martin’s son. Luke Martin was honored as a finalist and scholarship recipient at the 2024 Jimmys.
This year, Muñoz was also joined by Hayes, a recent LVA grad who received private instruction from, you guessed it, Ferrante-Martin.
That’s the type of influence Ferrante-Martin had on Southern Nevada’s performing arts scene during her 22 years at Bishop Gorman, a period that saw her school rack up consistent honors at The Smith Center’s annual Nevada High School Musical Theater Awards, including Ferrante-Martin’s personal wins for Outstanding Direction in 2019, 2022 and 2024.
It was all part of Ferrante-Martin’s commitment to the arts – and to ensuring the youth of this community benefit from being exposed to the arts at an early age.
“I believe that arts education is as important as reading, writing and arithmetic,” she said. “You can go into law, medicine, business … the skills you learn in the performing arts are essential for being able to work with other members of your team, being effective communicators, being compassionate, showing empathy, understanding other people's perspectives, time management … It’s integral to a child’s development.”