This Is Our Youth

THIS IS OUR YOUTH by Kenneth Lonergan

Set in 1982 New York and follows three privileged but directionless young adults—Dennis, Warren, and Jessica—over the course of one night. With stolen money, drugs, and clumsy romance in play, the story explores youth, identity, and the messy leap into adulthood.

Director - John Murphy 

John is a Canadian-Irish writer, director, actor and producer. He’s directed 30 plays for companies like The Arts Club, Mitch and Murray, Bard on the Beach, Playwrights Theatre Centre, plus many more. He was nominated for a Jessie Award for his direction of Woody Sed for Theatre Bagger. John directed the Leo Award winning web series Forgotten Masters and the Leo Nominated music video Not Out of the Woods Yet. As an actor, he’s appeared in over a hundred plays for theatres across the country and has been nominated for 4 Jessies for Best Actor. John has appeared in over 60 film/TV productions, including major roles in Painkiller, Valley of the Boom, Sabrina, Away and The Thundermans: Undercover. He’s wrote, produced and toured his one man show The Heretic across Canada and to the Edinburgh Fringe (“A tour de force” – The Scotsman). His play True Story won the Jessie Award for Best Play. He has written adaptations of Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing, Tartuffe, and Volpone. John’s screenplay Love and Microbes was a semi-finalist at the Austin Film Festival. 

Dennis Ziegler - Alexander J Skinner

Drawn to this story that cuts through nostalgia to the raw truths of youth – He saw in Dennis a chance to explore the restless energy of a generation caught between past and future. Alexander’s knocked around on sets from Netflix & AMC, to The History Channel – His work has spanned Film & TV, across Canada, the US, and the UK, but he believes live theatre remains the “final frontier” of storytelling: intimate, unfiltered, and urgent. A Long time student of Railtown Actors Studio and having trained with some of Vancouver’s finest, this will mark his Stage Debut.

Warren Straub - Oliver Atkins

Olly Atkins stars as Warren in Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth. A rising actor known for his precise and quietly magnetic performances, Atkins has quickly become a distinct and recognized voice in contemporary film and television. His work is defined by an obsession with vulnerability and the intense rhythms of human connection — qualities he brings to the stage for the first time in This Is Our Youth. Here, he offers a sharp, empathetic portrait of Warren: a generation’s lost boy, caught between privilege, paralysis, love, and the dire pressure to arrive as a young man.

Jessica Goldman - Shanti Harris

Shanti Harris (they/them) is an actor and writer based in Vancouver. Raised in the Slocan Valley, just outside of Nelson, BC—where nature walks were a subject in school—Shanti grew up in an environment that sparked their imagination and love for storytelling. Shanti made their theatrical debut in May with Mouse Saw the Scream, which they both wrote and performed in, and they are excited to return to the stage. They want to thank you for continuing to support live theatre!

Railtown Lab & John Cassini:

The Railtown Actors Studio Lab has been created as a  platform for artists to develop new projects, self-generate work and explore their artistic boundaries under the guidance and support of Founding Artistic Director John Cassini and Railtown instructors. In addition to a busy, award-winning acting career, John is also a TV and film producer and a highly regarded acting coach. John is a lifetime member of the renowned Actors Studio in NYC/LA and in 2018 was awarded the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Achievement. In 2024, John was deeply honoured to receive the John Juliani Award of Excellence from UBCP / Actra in recognition of significant achievement as a Performing Artist and for distinguished contribution to the lives of Performers and the Film and Television Industry.