Room 220 at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles is where 75-year-old Ted Walch helps teenagers fulfill their dreams. It’s where Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Segel first trained to become actors. It’s set up as a mini-studio, with stage lights, drapes, mirrors, scripts, costumes, a couch and a wall full of framed photos featuring students in plays and musicals.
Casey Giolito, 6-feet-4 with charismatic leading-man qualities, steps from behind a black curtain wearing a light blue button-down shirt, black pants and black high-tops. He’s one of six students in Walch’s acting class. They’re preparing for a laboratory play production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.