| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - jesse21 09:19 am EDT 09/11/14 |
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| "The action takes place in the Upper West Side brownstone studio apartment of Dennis Ziegler (Kieran Culkin) for which his affluent parents willingly pay the rent to keep him at arm’s length." Does it say in the published script that he lives in a brownstone? I didn't get that from the rather interesting set. After looking it at for a while, it seemed to me that we were supposed to think that he lives in the penthouse of the building that we see in the background. There's a smallish skylight. But perhaps you're right. Perhaps that's supposed to be a nearby building. I didn't realize that Culkin had appeared in the London production. Good for him that 12 years later he can still get away with it. I wonder if he played the same role in London. I could easily see him as Warren back then. Also kind of interesting is that he and Ruffalo appeared together in the troubled Lapine play The Moment When as Playwrights, which I remember feeling would have worked just fine if the Eugene Lee set had not been terribly misconceived. It seems that at Steppenwolf, this production was performed in the round. It was in their upstairs studio theatre, and what I've read online has said it was in the round. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | ilw 08:51 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Culkin did play the other role (Warren) in the London production | |
| Link | This is Our Youth |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | BroadwayTonyJ 05:55 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| The Steppenwolf Upstairs gets re-configured to fit the needs of each particular production. For This Is Our Youth, the stage was a narrow strip running down the center of the theater with 7 rows of seats forming the north section and 8 rows of seats making up the south section -- so almost but not quite in the round. I was in about the 3rd row of the south section on 7/27 -- 299 seats total, so pretty intimate. Over the years they have done plays completely in the round, but off-hand I can't recall seeing any at the Upstairs. However, Nathan Allen's The Sparrow was presented completely in the round at Steppenwolf's even more intimate Garage Theater back in 2007. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 06:23 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - BroadwayTonyJ 05:55 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Thanks for the more exact info. If you google this is our youth steppenwolf in the round, you will see that several articles and at least one review said that it was in the round at Steppenwolf. (Just explaining where I got the idea.) | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | BroadwayTonyJ 10:14 am EDT 09/12/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 06:23 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| Interesting. I read some of the articles and reviews you cited. I'm surprised that Chris Jones would consider this production "in the round". The set contained a functioning bathroom (house left) and the door to Dennis' apartment (house right). There would normally be a block of seats in these 2 locations (according to the Upstairs Steppenwolf map) for a true in-the-round production. I generally thought that "in the round" meant that the audience was seated on all 4 sides of the performance space. | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | jesse21 05:45 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - AlanScott 04:57 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| - I inferred without confirmation that the studio apartment was on the top floor of a brownstone that had been carved up as a multi-unit dwelling. That's what it looked like to me. And I also inferred it was on a numbered side street with that background behind the main set representing typical 17-story, pre-war apartment buildings on either CPW, WEA or RSD (or perhaps just one parallel block over). That London production of the play at the Garrick in 2002 had a rotating cast of famous young actors. Besides Kieran Culkin as Warren (you are correct in your assumption he played that character), Jake Gyllenhaal, Casey Affleck and Freddie Prinze Jr took on the role at various times during the run. - | |
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| re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts | |
| Posted by: | AlanScott 06:20 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
| In reply to: | re: My review of THIS IS OUR YOUTH: Playwright Kenneth Lonergan and cast make Bway debuts - jesse21 05:45 pm EDT 09/11/14 |
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| You may well be right about the set. That makes sense. | |
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