Upstart Productions returns this week with This Is Our Youth

by Shawn Parikh

Don't miss out on a pay-what-you-can performance this Thursday!

With Upstart Productions' debut back in November, they proved that a new theater company in town had the power to create a big splash with a critically- and audience-acclaimed production. Their performance of Topdog/Underdog garnered so much buzz that their next production has been awaited with much anticipation. And the wait is over this week with the opening of This Is Our Youth, co-produced with Project X: Theatre. On top of that, they even got the prestigious Rene Moreno to direct the show.

Written by Kenneth Lonergan, this play is a lacerating look at three young Manhattanites of the early 1980s living a doped-out Bohemian lifestyle. Dennis -- with a famous painter for a father and a social activist mother -- is a small-time drug dealer and a full-time slacker. His hero-worshipping, maladjusted friend Warren has just impulsively swiped $15,000 from his father, an abusive lingerie tycoon who is "not a criminal, just in business with criminals."

When Jessica, an ambitious fashion school girl, shows up for a date, Warren pulls out a wad of bills and whisks her away (awkwardly) for a night of New York seduction. How will Warren turn out? Will he continue to follow Dennis in his debauchery, or will he discover a way out? Remarkable in its understanding of contemporary urban youth, 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.

This Is Our Youth will run from March 5 - 22 and tickets to the opening night performance are pay-what-you-can. Purchase tickets online or by calling online or by calling 877-238-5596.