Barbara May

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Barbara May , initially also known as Babsi May (born April 28, 1961 in Vienna ) is an Austrian actress and drama teacher .

Life

Barbara May began taking ballet lessons at the age of 12, but soon changed schools when she met Heide Steinwachs at the age of 14. The latter played a key role in the production of the classic film "Cabaret" in 1972, together with Bob Fosse and Liza Minnelli . The young Barbara May was supported by Heide Steinwachs as well as by Rolf Kutschera and Marianne Mendt and at the age of 16 she already took on the role of a training assistant in the Theater an der Wien . In 1978 she was discovered by the largest German youth magazine “BRAVO” as “Bravo Girl of the Year”. In this “BRAVO Teen Choice” competition in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle , Barbara May, in contrast to her competitors, performed as a dancer or with a tap dance , and so convinced the jury that she was awarded first prize. The film producer Dieter Geissler became aware of Barbara May's talent and hired her as a dancer and actress for the film "Disco-Fieber" (to the music of the group " Boney M ", who presented an LP with their most famous hits with this film) .

Edith Leyrer and Marianne Mendt campaigned for Barbara May to take over the management of the dance school . She therefore broke off her schooling (commercial academy in Hörlgasse) prematurely and founded the “Dance Center Barbara May”.

When Barbara May was accepted as an actress by the German agency Jovanovic and as a result the role offers increased rapidly, she was no longer able to continue her “Dance Center” and the change to the acting profession was finally completed.

During the filming of the film "Goldene Zeiten, bitter times" (1983; director: Michael Braun ) she met her husband Wolf Roth . Their son David Christopher Roth was born on October 26, 1993 . After a time in which Barbara May was mainly devoted to her family, she decided to create a bilingual training facility that meets the requirements of the film acting profession in particular , and on October 31, 1999 she founded the 1st Film Academy in Vienna , which she has been running since then.

1st film academy

In October 2000 Barbara May opened a film academy for children, the 1st film academy for kids ; classes started with 90 students. In 2006, together with her husband Wolf Roth , she founded a bilingual institution for German-language acting training, the 1st filmacademy wien . She herself teaches the subject of "Camera Acting".

Since there was no bilingual acting training for the medium of film and theater at that time and the inquiries from agencies and students increased significantly, the focus of the 1st filmacademy was set up on full-time studies in the field of theater and film.

In 2012 Barbara May directed the short film "Outbreak", which was shot by the 1st Film Academy in a wooded area in Unter-Oberndorf and at the Waldschenke in Neulengbach .

"The production of the short film is intended to give young, committed and talented actors the opportunity to gain practical experience and to work with experienced colleagues, directors, assistants and camera teams who are established in the industry."

- Barbara May

The film, with a running time of 50 minutes, was shown in cinemas in Vienna and at short film festivals after completion.

Excerpts from some graduates

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. imdb: Heide Steinwachs , accessed on July 14, 2015
  2. ^ "BRAVO-Girl 1978: Babsi Mai from Vienna (17 years old)" , accessed on July 14, 2015
  3. wienerzeitung.at of May 22, 2003: Barbara May , accessed on July 14, 2015
  4. DER STANDARD - print edition, August 2, 2005
  5. wienerzeitung.at of May 22, 2003 , accessed on July 21, 2015
  6. filmacademy.at , accessed on July 21, 2015
  7. a b NÖN.at of March 6, 2012: Film shoot in the Vienna Woods , accessed on July 22, 2015
  8. Helen Barke, a graduate of the filmacademy drama school . Retrieved October 18, 2018.