Queens Theatre program offers free training for individuals with disabilities
NEW YORK -- Disability Pride means showing the world the talent and determination of our neighbors who don't always get a chance to shine.
A Queens Theatre program called Theatre for All is changing that.
Acting is what thrills Bonetta Lynch, of Laurelton, Queens. Finding the right training is tough.
"Some people, they just don't see beyond the disability," Lynch told CBS2's Dave Carlin.
For Lynch, scoliosis and muscular dystrophy don't get in her way. She's thriving at Queens Theatre as a second-year member of its Theatre for All program where those who identify as deaf and disabled learn acting from the pros for free.
"My whole world opened up. It's amazing," Lynch said.
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Star of stage and screen Vincent D'Onofrio is among the instructors, showing Lynch how to nail a scene.
"Whatever you have inside of you, he will make you bring it out," she said.
Lynch knew she wanted to act when she was a teen in a back brace seeing her first Broadway show in the mid-1970s, "The Wiz."
"Bonetta Lynch is an incredibly moving actor," said Taryn Sacramone, executive director of Queens Theatre. "It's Disability Pride Month, right? I think that that's an important thing to really have resonate with the public ... That there are talented artists out there who should be filling these roles and who should be working more."
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Sacramone explained why of all the boroughs, Queens is the perfect place for this program.
"Often when people think about Queens, they think of it in terms of ethnic diversity, right? More than 204 languages spoken daily, and things like that," she said. "And we started to actually question whether we were fully serving the 20 percent of the population who have disabilities, who are deaf and disabled ... and we wanted to do something about that gap in representation."
Casting directors, take note -- representation matters.
"You can make it happen," Lynch said.
Some other actors from the program recently appeared in the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of "Richard III."
Meanwhile, D'Onofrio has pledged to match the first $15,000 donated to the program during its current fundraising drive.
For more information about the program, visit queenstheatre.org.
