Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater Season Opens Today With THIS IS OUR YOUTH

The 2018 theater season opens at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater with This Is Our Youth, by Academy Award winner Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Katherine M. Carter and starring Michael Goldsmith, John Evans Reese and Ruby Wolf. Designers for This Is Our Youth are Edward Morris (Scenic Design), Caitlin Cisek (Costume Design), Conor Mulligan (Lighting Design), and Beth Lake (Sound Design). Performances are at 8:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, June 1-22. Two preview performances, May 30 and 31, begin at 7:30 p.m.

This Is Our Youth is a living snapshot of the moment between adolescence and adulthood when 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 realize, and far less effectual than they themselves can possibly imagine.

In meticulous, hilarious, and agonizing detail, 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, a dejected nineteen-year-old who steals fifteen thousand dollars from his abusive father; Dennis, the charismatic and domineering friend who helps him put the money to use; and Jessica, the anxiously insightful young woman Warren yearns for.

Michael Goldsmith (Dennis) New York theatre credits include: Tales From Red Vienna (Manhattan Theatre Club), Final Analysis (winner, Outstanding Lead Actor at the Midtown International Festival). Regional: Mama's Boy (George Street), Long Lost (Illinois Theatre), 4000 Miles (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Folger Theatre), Awake and Sing! and Now or Later, both at the Huntington Theatre. London credits: Olivier-winning production of Clybourne Park (West End and Royal Court), Six Degrees of Separation (Old Vic), Brooklyn (Cock Tavern), The Shape of Things (Courtyard). Film and Television: Woody Allen's Irrational Man, Gotham, Doctor Who, Netflix's upcoming Who in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Several plays for BBC Radio. Training: The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Interlochen.

John Evans Reese (Warren) is a rising second year Acting MFA candidate at Yale School of Drama. Off-Broadway: A Taste of Honey (The Pearl Theatre Company) directed by Austin Pendleton. Regional: Lord of the Flies (Barrington Stage Company); An Inspector Calls (Pioneer Theatre Company); The History Boys (Palm Beach Dramaworks); Shakespeare's R&J (Cygnet Theatre); The Way of the World (Franklin Stage Company); Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers (NRTC, Kennedy Center PTSF); New York: Way to Heaven (NYTimes Critic's Pick). Theatre: Master Harold...and the Boys; St. Joan; On the Razzle; Twelfth Night; The Importance of Being Earnest. Film: Do Not Disturb (score by Danny Elfman); Play House (SxSW). Training: UNCSA. SCGSAH.

Ruby Wolf (Jessica) received her B.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. New York Theatre: Mozelle in The Goree All-Girl String Band (New York Musical Festival / New York Theatre Barn's New Works Series), Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (Lincoln Center Education / Psittacus) and Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare in the Square). Recent regional credits include Miranda in The Tempest (Lantern Theatre Company), Marina in Pericles (Delaware Shakespeare Festival), Celia in As You Like It (Lantern Theatre Company; Barrymore Award Nominee), and Miriam in The Parade (Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival / Peregrine Theatre Ensemble). She is delighted to be returning to WHAT where she was last seen as Juliet in Romeo & Juliet (LCE / Psittacus co-production) and Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera.

Katherine M. Carter is a director of theatre & opera. Previous work includes; Westport Country Playhouse, Boston Lyric Opera, Playwrights Horizons, On Site Opera, 54 Below, Boston Opera Collaborative, The Little Orchestra Society, New York University, and University of Maryland School of Music. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies with New Georges, Wolf Trap Opera, The Drama League, and Playwrights Horizons. Alumna of the Directors Lab of Chicago, and The Playwright Directors Studio. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, and a proud member of SDC and AGMA. Katherine is the co-founding Artistic Director of The MITTEN Lab a theatre residency in Northern Michigan providing time, space, and support for artists. Up Next: SONATA 1962 at the New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Kenneth Lonergan is a playwright, screenwriter and director. As writer and director of Manchester by the Sea, he received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Golden Globe nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Director. His film, You Can Count on Me, which he wrote and directed, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, won the Sundance 2000 Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, the NY Film Critics Circle, LA Film Critics Circle, Writers Guild of America and National Board of Review awards for Best Screenplay of 2001, the AFI awards for Best Film and Best New Writer. He co-wrote the film, Gangs of New York which garnered a WGA and Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. As a playwright, he has been represented in New York by Lobby Hero, The Waverly Gallery (2001 Pulitzer Prize runner-up), and This is Our Youth (Drama Desk Best Play nominee).

Dates of note: Pay WHAT You Want on the first Wednesday (preview); Opening Night is Friday, June 1; and a playmaker talkback follows selected Thursday performances. Performances are at 8:00 p.m., Tuesdays-Saturdays, except the two previews on May 30 and 31 which start at 7:30 p.m.

This Is Our Youth

By Kenneth Lonergan

May 30 - June 22, 2018

Previews: May 30 & 31, 7:30 p.m.

Runs: Tues. through Sat., 8:00 p.m.

$25-$39; students $12

Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater
2357 Route 6, Wellfleet
508-349-9428 | www.what.org