"When I had been honest, I was told to shut up. When I had felt passion, it had ultimately been ignored....[A]nd when I had been courageous, I ended up alone." These emotions, expressed by a homeless gay youth in Fringe Benefits, are the very ones that Director Norma Bowles and Co-Director Ernie Lafky tap to help youth create performances that clearly express their views of the world. Fringe Benefits contracts for 6 months with shelters and transitional homes for homeless gay and lesbian youth. The staff meet youth at each site at least twice a week to conduct writing and acting classes. The young peopleÌs experiences shape the content of their work. In one- on-one sessions, youth focus on improving their creative-writing skills and on finding effective ways to dramatize their individual stories. Over a 6-month period, 70 youth collaborate on writing a play that is performed by approximately 12 participants at the Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles. "The performing arts provide a bridge from the street to other kinds of work. Kids learn the concept of delayed gratification; they learn how to work very hard, through the frustration, to get to the end result. Some of the youth in our program," Bowles continues, "have gone on to college and summer repertory programs; one youth got a poetry prize from a local museum. Their work is top notch, classy, intelligent, powerful and quite beautiful."