Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: It's not easy to get up on a stage when you're 15 and gay and to sing about it.
Nor is it easy to re-enact that moment in the principal's office after you were bullied -- bleeding, confessing to your mystified parents that you were being picked on because you are gay -- and your parents walked out on you.
But those are the real-life stories being told, through spoken word, movement, drama, percussion and song, by young members of the Dreams of Hope performance troupe -- lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
1 comment:
This is a beautiful example of the power of theater and the arts. Lately, I've been struggling with the question of whether or not theater "does" anything, leads to any change. I've come to the conclusion that it can change the way someone thinks and feels, but rarely the way someone acts. And here I am, glad to be proven wrong. Well, somewhat wrong. It's obvious here that performing with Dreams of Hope helps many LGBT teens overcome challenges and allow them to affirm their identity as well as change the way they interact with others. But I also think that beyond performance, it's the community of this wonderful organization that helped those people take ownership of their identity.
So I guess that the answer to this question I've been struggling with is that yes, theater can indeed change what a person does, but only if there is another vessel carrying that change as well. I don't know, this is a work in progress
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