为了旧金山表演者卡特里娜·麦格劳，从来没有更好的时间成为一名大尺寸的色彩演员。她说：“这是一个包容的时期，当人们积极寻找不同的肤色和身体类型时。”

McGraw, 29, sees barriers falling everywhere: in the box office hits “Black Panther” and “Crazy Rich Asians,” which have predominantly black and Asian casts, respectively; in “Hamilton,” with its Latino and African American actors playing the founding fathers; and in the Broadway musical “Head Over Heels,” which stars plus-size actress Bonnie Milligan in the ingénue role.

“Representation matters,” McGraw says. “I always say, ‘It’s a very good time to be me.’ ”

麦格劳（McGraw）是旧金山本地人，在里士满内部长大，并爱上了Presidio中学的表演，在那里她在“绿野仙踪”中扮演了西方的邪恶女巫。高中毕业后，她曾在中部加州海岸的圣玛丽亚（Santa Maria）的太平洋演出艺术学院培训，并在2016年返回旧金山之前，在纽约挣扎中度过了三年的训练。

During an afternoon chat in the San Francisco Playhouse lobby on Post Street, McGraw said she used to fight for roles that were deemed inappropriate because of her height (she’s 5-foot-10) or her skin color (her mother was white, her father African American).

Today, most Bay Area theaters practice race-conscious casting and, accordingly, McGraw has worked steadily. In the past two years, she has appeared in “She Loves Me” and “A Christmas Story” for San Francisco Playhouse, “Little Shop of Horrors” for Ray of Light Theatre, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” for 42nd Street Moon, “Rocky Horror Show” for ACT Conservatory, “Hair” and “Seussical” for Bay Area Musicals, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” for Town Hall Theatre in Lafayette and “Freaky Friday” for Center Rep in Walnut Creek.

Sadly, most of those gigs didn’t pay much. Until August, McGraw wasn’t a member of Actors’ Equity, the theatrical actors’ labor union. Salaries for non-Equity actors, she says, can be paltry. “You’re doing really good theater, but you’re maybe getting a $200 stipend for three months of work.”

It’s a tough life. “When I moved back from New York,” McGraw says, “I was working at a children’s fitness center 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., nannying from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and in rehearsal from 6 to 10 p.m. And still barely making enough to survive.”

Recently, McGraw had to find a new place to live, “and it was the worst experience of my life trying to find a room in the city for under $1,000. There are only a handful of rooms for that price still. Also, it seems no one wants an artist in their house. Everyone wants techies with a solid 9-to-5 schedule.”

最终，她找到了一些东西：她与另外三个共享的Ingleside地区房屋的上层。“我为我的房间支付了800美元，这是旧金山的便士。但是我必须走过室友的房间才能到达我的房间。并与其他三个人共享浴室。”

When she’s not in a show, McGraw scrambles for work. “I pick up babysitting gigs, work the box office or some other short-term gig to substitute the income I’m not making from a show. I’ve worked in retail, food service, teaching, child care, street marketing, you name it.”

McGraw has a part-time job at San Francisco Playhouse as the company’s outreach coordinator, coordinating free show tickets for Bay Area high school students. She’s assisting a former teacher, Anne Marie Ullman, as associate director for “Daughters of Atreus” at Lowell High School, and in August debuted a solo cabaret act at Martuni’s, singing Sondheim, Rodgers and Hart, and Sara Bareilles.

乌尔曼（Ullman）记得她第一次在舞台上看到麦格劳（McGraw）时：“当卡特里娜（Katrina）读高中时，我看到她唱歌‘好像我们从未说过再见。’我对她的诠释感到震惊。我的意思是，与年轻的高中生一起，将他们带到一个可以自信地站在舞台上并以意义上的键唱歌的地步。卡特里娜飓风的表现不仅具有意义，而且具有意义层次。她甚至不必搬家。那一刻对我来说很明显，她要走得很远。”

鉴于她的家庭背景，麦格劳在世界上找到了自己的利基市场，并在竞争性领域取得了成功，这真是值得注意的。她的父亲是哥特乐队中的一名鼓手，她长大后几乎没有到处都是，母亲是一个瘾君子。当麦格劳14岁时，她母亲的处境变得如此动荡，以至于麦格劳和她的弟弟奈杰尔（Nigel）搬进了祖母在同一座建筑物中的公寓。2014年，麦格劳（McGraw）的母亲死于肝衰竭，现年49岁。她的兄弟，也是瘾君子。她的父亲住在阿尔伯克基，“但我没有与他交流。”

在如此艰难的背景下，麦格劳在世界上的功能以及她的功能如何？

“老实说，我很幸运，”她说，“我想我刚出生时，能够看到周围发生的事情。我妈妈在生活中很久以后被诊断出患有边缘性人格障碍，我认为我小时候就捡起了这一点，并以某种方式与她断开了联系。我上高中时，我的奶奶和我的弟弟受到了监护权。所以她是我的父母。”

此外，在高中时，“我有一群了不起的朋友，他们的家庭生活大部分不那么完美。因此，我们不必隐藏彼此之间发生的事情。我遇到了我最好的朋友，并帮助她克服了一个非常糟糕的饮食失调。我认为我们以某种方式互相保存。”

麦格劳（McGraw）对剧院的热爱是她生存的另一个因素。“就在我开始与妈妈在家里与妈妈打交道的时候，我有这个家庭，放学后要做这个事情。当我所有的朋友都在抽烟和聚会时，这让我负责。否则，我很容易就螺旋式旋转，走了谁知道哪里。”

Keith Carames, who taught McGraw at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, agrees: “Having a home away from home, feeling love and support and a sense of being a member of a tribe, an ensemble—that was a good thing for Katrina. Having borne witness to such turbulence at home … forced her to navigate her own ship into harbor.”

麦格劳（McGraw）凭借她的股票卡，计划于6月搬回纽约。“我将试镜很多多年来一直在做百老汇的女性。但是你不能让这些事情阻止你。”

It comes down to that unassailable love for performing. In the days immediately following the election of President Trump in November 2016, McGraw remembers doing the musical “Seussical”: “Every day you’re like, ‘What’s the point?’ You’d be down, you’d be spiraling, you’d be depressed. And then you get on stage at that Saturday matinee where the whole audience is kids.

“And they’re laughing and talking back to you and they’re excited. And you’re like, ‘Oh, right. This is why I do this!’ ”