News release
In a first-time co-production, Dig Deep Theatre and Theatre Extempore are teaming up to bring Academy Award winner Kenneth Lonergan’s breakthrough coming-of-age dramedy “This Is Our Youth” to The Olive Branch in Valencia for nine performances across two weekends, opening May 8, according to a news release from the nonprofit Dig Deep.
The collaborating companies’ presentation is the Santa Clarita Valley’s first chance to see Lonergan’s sharp, layered writing in live performance, the release said.
Set against a hardscrabble New York City down on its luck in the early 1980s, “This Is Our Youth” chronicles a pivotal 24 hours in the lives of three young adults on the Upper West Side. “With the characters emerging into adulthood in the era of Ronald Reagan, the play is an insightful snapshot of both the moment between adolescence and maturity, and a particular era in America,” the release said.
Warren Straub (Jackson Cameron Gordon) arrives on the stoop of his drug-dealing best friend Dennis Ziegler (Jesse Katz) with nowhere to go and $15,000 in cash — stolen from his possibly mobbed-up father — in his backpack. In a cloud of pot smoke and a whirlwind of banter, the two wayward young men are interrupted by self-assured fashion student Jessica Goldman (Shawnee Badger or Kelsey Tuma, depending on performance times) who forces them to confront who they all are and where they are headed in their lives.
“This play keeps coming back because of the universality of its themes, and the fascinating, relatable characters Kenneth Lonergan has crafted,” Jeremy D. Thompson, who directs the production, said in the release. “At some point, we all know the feeling of standing at the edge of a precipice — anxious and ready for our next chapter to begin. This is where we find Warren, Dennis, and Jessica. Sometimes, all that can get you through that moment are your friends and your record collection.”
“This talented cast brings these characters, their apprehension, and the liminal nature of that time to the stage with rich inner lives and performances so engrossing that I find myself moved every rehearsal — no matter how many times I’ve read or seen the scene.”
Recently revived on Broadway starring Kieran Culkin and Michael Cera, “This Is Our Youth” premiered Off Broadway in 1996, and featured a career-making performance from Mark Ruffalo. Subsequent casts have included Jake Gyllenhaal, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Colin Hanks. The play marked a breakthrough for Lonergan, whose motion picture credits include writing and directing “Manchester by the Sea” (Oscar, Best Original Screenplay) and “You Can Count on Me;” as well as co-writing “Gangs of New York” and “Analyze This.”
Ranked at No. 12 in the “Best Plays of the Last 25 Years,” The New York Times wrote of the play: “The world Mr. Lonergan explores is the desolate, dead-end universe of young Manhattanites with rich parents and no direction … With an ear attuned to the coarse, ironic language of city kids too cosmopolitan for their own good, Mr. Lonergan seems to know this terrain well.”
“The dialogue is energetic, idiosyncratic, outrageous, and gives such a specific voice to each character,” Badger, who serves as producer and portrays Jessica Goldman, said in the release. “‘This Is Our Youth’ was one of the first plays I ever read where the dialogue alone just jumped off the page and smacked me in the face. I remember thinking, ‘I didn’t know people could write like this.’ Lonergan really captures that moment of young people emerging into adulthood and figuring out how to trust others when the world they are entering seems so callous and dangerous.”
The theater groups advised that this production contains profanity, drug use and descriptions of physical and domestic abuse.
Showtimes are 7 p.m. May 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16; and, 1 p.m. May 9, 10, 16 and 17. Tickets ($25 general admission, $21 seniors/veterans) available online at tob-scv.org. The Olive Branch is located in the Patios at Valencia Town Center, 24201 Valencia Blvd., No. 3274, Valencia.
