Young theater talents create a Revolution
Before they decided to produce Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth, Alexander Diaz and Ed Renninger wanted to harness their University of the Arts classmates' talents and give them a reason to stick around for a while.
Before they decided to produce Kenneth Lonergan's
This Is Our Youth
, Alexander Diaz and Ed Renninger wanted to harness their University of the Arts classmates' talents and give them a reason to stick around for a while.
So one day in April, the pair floated a question on Facebook: Was there an interest in a Philly theater company devoted to young artists? By evening, they had received more than 100 affirmative replies, and Theatre Revolution was born.
The company's first production, Lonergan's 1996
Less Than Zero
-meets-
Kids
chronicle of under-age, Upper West Side excess isn't exactly a stretch for a bunch of theater students, but it's a natural choice. However, mounting a fully staged show with a paid cast was a mighty challenge, considering that everyone involved (with the exception of lighting designer Megan McCormick, who is cast member Haley McCormick's mother) is either an undergraduate or a member of this year's graduating class. Complicating matters, Diaz and Renninger's burning ambitions were tested by a fire that consumed their set a week and a half before opening night.
But the good thing about starting a theater company while you're still in school is all the enthusiastic support everyone's willing to provide. UArts faculty offered plenty of hand-holding along the way, and provided Diaz and Renninger with a new space when the old one couldn't be salvaged. Gene Terusso, former director of UArts' School of Theater Arts and now on sabbatical, offered the Gershman Y's black box theater - owned by the university - for the group's use, and said he was flattered to be asked for guidance.
Terusso had directed Renninger, who just graduated, in several productions and is the adviser on Diaz's senior project. "This is a group of our finest students and recent alums," Terusso says, "who have held down some the most important roles we've had to offer."
The university's support runs right up to its president, Sean Buffington, who personally donated more than $500 to the company.
This Is Our Youth
depicts a trio of floaters, kids figuring out what to do next, partying to excess and adrift in a sea of self-indulgence. Played by UArts juniors Haley McCormick and Michael Doherty, and '08 graduate Paul Felder (who earlier this season lit up New City Stage Company's production of
Extremities
), they are so specific in their characterizations that you can't help but match them up with long-lost acquaintances from your own misspent youth.
Director Renninger tosses the script's comic and tragic elements into the air and lets them fall where they may - much like the detritus and grime littering Jacob Riley's set - with a seeming carelessness that matches Lonergan's carefully structured chaos. The boys smoke and snort to near-psychosis, as all three struggle in the quicksand of their broken families and try to connect with one another.
It's as romantic and funny as it is painful to watch, literally and figuratively a searing first effort from a company that can only serve to deepen the region's talent pool.
