This Is Our Youth

AUDITION DETAILS Time: 11am - 3pm on Sunday the 3rd of August, 2008 Venue: The Blueroom, Nothbridge SETTING The play takes place in Dennis' one-room apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan around late March, 1982 Actors required: 2 Male 1 Female CHARACTERS The two male characters are basically "drop-out kids" of wealthy parents and all are recreational/social drug users. A Manhattan accent is required, though a more general American accent is acceptable Dennis Ziegler (M) - 21 years old but can be up to 27 in appearance A grungy but handsome & quite athletic young man. The alpha male of the play, therefore quite aggressive, bullying & very quick, but actually a bit of a loser. He has spent his teenage years in power over his peers but is soon to discover that these same techniques won't work in the real world for long. Warren Straub (M) - 19 years old but can be up to 24 in appearance Appearance is influenced by the character of Dennis, but still a fairly attractive boy underneath. He is shy & has intelligence but doesn't often use it, so is easily led astray to do the wrong thing in an effort to fit in. Deep down he is quite sensitive, also a sentimentalist & a bit of a geek. Jessica Goldman (F) - 19 years old but can be up to 24 in appearance (Supporting role) An attractive and well-presented young girl. She appears prickly & is very defensive in an effort cover up her own nervousness. Is interested in Warren and, of the three characters, is the most independent & grown-up. SYNOPSIS In 1982, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the wealthy, articulate pot-smoking teenagers who were small children in the '60s have emerged as young adults in a country that has just resoundingly rejected everything they were brought up to believe in. The very last wave of New York City's '60s-style Liberalism has come of age - and there's nowhere left to go. In meticulous, hilarious, and agonising details, This Is Our Youth follows forty-eight hours of three very lost young souls in the big city at the dawn of the Reagan Era: Warren Straub, a dejected nineteen-year-old who steals fifteen thousand dollars from his abusive lingerie-tycoon father; Dennis Ziegler, the charismatic domineering drug-dealing friend who helps him put the money to good use; and Jessica Goldman, the anxiously insightful young woman Warren yearns for. Funny, painful, and compassionate, This Is Our Youth is a living snapshot of the moment between adolescence and adulthood when many young people first go out into the world on their own, armed only with the ideas and techniques they developed as teenagers - ideas and techniques far more sophisticated than their parents ever realise, and far less effectual than they themselves can possibly imagine. Performance Dates: Dates: October 24th to Novenber 1st Venue: The Subiaco Arts Centre (the Studio) Contains: Frequent Coarse Language, Adult Themes, Drug Use & Sexual References