At some point in the ’90s, there were artists aggressively trying to figure out what the final lessons of the ’80s might have been. Perhaps one of the most compelling looks at this was Bret Easton Ellis’ brilliant psychological horror novel American Psycho. The garish obsession with style and detail from a first-person perspective glossed over the truly disgusting nature of what the protagonist was doing. Very chilling stuff. Kenneth Lonergan’s 1996 drama This Is Our Youth was a look at the lives of the wealthy leading-edge of Generation X as it came of age in a decade tripping into the early days of the Reagan Era. The play takes place in an Upper West Side Manhattan apartment in March of 1982. Characters deal with the fallout of a post-idealistic materialism as a 19-year-old man is kicked out of his home with a pilfered $15,000 from his abusive father. The money might be spent on cocaine. It might be spent to try to entice sex out of a fashion student who comes over to the apartment. Anything could happen.
The show is being staged in a couple of different places in late Summer this year by a relatively new outfit called droputArts. The company bills itself as “Punk Theatre/Professional Mindset.” Cool Always nice to see a new face. Pink Banana formally bowed-out of existence earlier this month. DroputArts launched its first Facebook post this month as well. This isn't exactly, their first show, though. Their website lists a single show produced under a different name (R&L Productions' LATE: a cowboy song by Sarah Ruhl at the Off the Wall Theatre) not too long ago.
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dropout Arts’ production of This Is Our Youth opens a two-venue run in 86 in Kenosha late this month. The venue in question is in the basement of Custom Tattoo & Body Piercing on 5712 6th Ave. in Kenosha. That leg of the show runs two weekends Aug, 27 - Sep. 6.
the second half of the run takes place onstage at the Soulstice Theatre space on 3770 S. Pennsylvania Ave. The Soulstice Theatre end of the show runs for one weekend only Sep. 17 - 20.
For tickets and more information, visit dropoutArts online.
