Princeton Students Adapt 1930s LGBTQ+ Clinical Studies to Theater in Sex Variants Atelier Course

Photo highlights from "Sex Variants" showing of work by Princeton Atelier students

An actor performs in front of a whiteboard that reads PSY 401 Curing the Sexual Deviant

Photo by Jon Sweeney

An actor on stage wearing a feather boa performs in front of a white board that reads PSY 401 Curing the Sexual Deviant

Photo by Jon Sweeney

A group of actors perform on a stage some sitting, some kneeling and some standing

Photo by Jon Sweeney

Students stand in a line and perform from scripts on a stage

Photo by Jon Sweeney

An actor reads dramatically from a script

Photo by Jon Sweeney

An actor wearing a lab coat goes into the audience

Photo by Jon Sweeney

An actor pulls at the arm of another actor who is being escorted off stage

Photo by Jon Sweeney

Photo by Jon Sweeney

An actor plays the piano as another actor proposes to an actor on stage

Photo by Jon Sweeney

Photo by Jon Sweeney

An actor with hands on hips looks disappointed as a pelvis x-ray is projected as another actor plays piano

Photo by Jon Sweeney

Four actors in a line look to their right off stage in shock

Photo by Jon Sweeney

Theater writer/director Steve Cosson stands in front of a monitor

Photo by Jon Sweeney

On December 5 in New South, Princeton students hosted an informal collaborative workshop performance from the fall 2022 Atelier course Sex Variants, taught by theater writer/director Steve Cosson and multimedia artist Jessica Mitrani, which focused on a theatrical interrogation of the book Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns. The book features interviews with LGBTQ+ individuals in the 1930s, and the class took a creative deep dive into these autobiographical accounts, manifesting strategies to adapt the text into performance.