Helping Gay Actors Find Themselves Onstage
By ERIK PIEPENBURG
Published: December 12, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/theater/13actout.html?_r=1One by one the students in Brad Calcaterra's acting class stood at the front of the room and tearfully, joyfully, brazenly talked about being gay. A young lesbian laughed about her first kiss. A gay man described living with H.I.V. since the 1980s. A transgender woman performed high kicks. Before one man said anything his body shook, and he began to sob.
"Keep breathing," Mr. Calcaterra told him. "Create."
The weekly course, called Act Out, began in September at the Chelsea space of the Studio, a small acting school that Mr. Calcaterra owns and directs. About a dozen students have been meeting for scene studies, cold readings, improvisational exercises, on-camera techniques and other acting drills, but with a concentration on sexual identity. (The cost is $300 for four classes.)
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A Transgender Voice
Jamie Clayton, a student in the Act Out class for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, talks about her life as a transgender woman. (Video courtesy of Brad Calcaterra)
