Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton and Missy Yager to Star in THIS IS OUR YOUTH at LA Theatre Works

Original New York cast members Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton and Missy Yager star when L.A. Theatre Works records This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan for broadcast on LATW's nationally syndicated public radio theater series, The Play's The Thing. Five performances will be presented by L.A. Theatre Works at the Skirball Cultural Center March 18-22.

In 1982, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, three pot-smoking teenagers caught up in the excesses of the "Me Generation" nevertheless resoundingly reject the 1960s ideals of their affluent parents. In hilarious and bittersweet detail, This is Our Youth follows 48 turbulent hours in the lives of three very lost souls at the dawn of the Reagan Era, presenting an acerbic look at that generation in its ironic struggle both to resist and to attain adulthood.

"When I saw the play in New York a decade ago, I instantly recognized that both the playwright and the actors were destined to make their mark," said L.A. Theatre Works producing artistic director Susan Loewenberg.

Indeed, Lonergan's play launched his own career as a playwright and screenwriter, as well as the careers of its young stars, and This Is Our Youth has become popular among the younger theater generation for its edgy issues and modern themes. Ensuing productions have featured many famous film actors - many of them in their first stage role - including Hayden Christiansen, Matt Damon, Colin Hanks, and Chris Klein as Dennis; Jake Gyllenhaal, Casey Affleck, Kieran Culkan and FrEddie Prinze, Jr. as Warren; and Anna Paquin, Summer Phoenix, Alison Lohman and Heather Burns as Jessica.

The characters in This Is Our Youth are loosely based on the playwright himself and his friends from the Walden School, a progressive private high school in Manhattan. In 1993, the MET in New York City produced Lonergan's one-act play Betrayal by Everyone during their festival of short plays. Lonergan then expanded the play and renamed it This Is Our Youth. The new version opened Off Broadway in 1998 to rave reviews that continued when the play moved the following year to the Douglas Fairbanks Theater. The play was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and was published by Overlook Press in 2000.

Kenneth Lonergan began writing in high school, later graduating from the NYU Playwriting Program. Following the success of This is Our Youth came The Waverley Gallery (1999), based on his grandmother's Greenwich Village Gallery, and later Lobby Hero (2002). His screenplay credits include Analyze This (1999); The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000); You Can Count on Me (2000), which he also directed and co-starred in; and Gangs of New York (2002). In 2006 he wrote and directed the film Margaret starring Anna Paquin, Matt Damon and Matthew Broderick.

For three decades, L.A. Theatre Works has been the leading radio theater company in the United States, committed to using innovative technologies to preserve and promote significant works of dramatic literature and bringing live theater into the homes of millions. LATW's radio theater series, The Play's The Thing, airs weekly on 89.3 FM KPCC Southern California Public Radio, and is streamed on the KPCC website for one week following each broadcast. The series can also be heard on 89.7 WGBH in Boston; 91.5 FM WBEZ in Chicago; 94.9 KUOW in Seattle; 93.5 FM KRTS "Marfa Public Radio" in Texas; 90.5 FM KUT in Austin; 88.9 FM KUNM in Albuquerque; 91.5 FM, Interlochen Public Radio in Northern Michigan; 94.1 KPFA in Northern California; 91.1 FM KRCB in Sonoma County; 89.1 KUOR in Redlands; as well as on many other public radio stations nationwide. Selected programs from LATW are also heard internationally over BBC World Service, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Telefis Eirann (Ireland), Radio Hong Kong, and Radio New Zealand.The L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collection is available in bookstores, libraries, through their catalog, digitally on itunes, overdrive.com, audible.com, and on the L.A. Theatre Works website at www.latw.org.

Performances of This Is Our Youth take place on Wednesday, March 18 at 8 pm; Thursday, March 19 at 8 pm; Friday, March 20 at 8 pm; Saturday, March 21 at 2:30 pm;and Sunday, March 22 at 4 pm. Tickets range from $20.00 to $48.00. L.A. Theatre Works at the Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd, off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Santa Monica Mountains (exit Skirball Center Drive). For tickets and information, call the L.A. Theatre Works box office at (310) 827-0889 or go to www.latw.org.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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