Pains of Youth

(Krankheit der Jugend)
by Ferdinand Bruckner
Translated by Daphne Moore

Director------------------------------- Georgij Paro

Scenic Designer------------------------------- David Flaten
Lighting Designer------------------- M. Elizabeth Pletrzak
Costumer----------------------------------- Alice Gasparian

Choreographers-- Kathryn Przybylska & Jessica Wotherspoon

The Cast
Marie--------------------------------------------------------- Alicia Hester
Desiree--------------------------------------------- Jessica Wotherspoon
Irene------------------------------------------------- Kathryn Przybylska
Lucy-------------------------------------------------.Jennifer Holindrake
Freder---------------------------------------------------- LaVelle Wilson
Petrell ------------------------------------------------- Michael Medford
Alt------------------------------------------------------------ Torn Moese

Stage Crew
Assistant Director/Stage Manager---Melissa Ann Negrete
Technical Director-------------------- M. Elizabeth Pietrzak
Properties-------------------------------------- Holly Musser
Light Board Operator----------------- Chryseis Alexander
Master Carpenter---------------------------- Jason Costello
Asst. to the lighting designer----------- Wesley Hester III

Construction Crew
Chryseis Alexander, Anna Caples, E. Baker Eatmon,
Wesley Hester III, Jennifer Holindrake, Michael Medford,
Tom Moese, Holly Musser, Melissa Ann Negrete

and with special appreciation to Reed Gratz

About the Playwright...
by Jessica Wotherspoon...

Ferdinand Bruckner, born Theodore Tagger in Vienna, Austria at the end of the- nineteenth century, began writing plays during post-World War I Germany. This was a time of extreme disillusionment and pessimism throughout the country which was reflected in many dramatic works. These plays, coined Zeitstuck, dealt with current issues and problems from a precise standpoint. Bruckner's dramas were based on these styles of plays. The issues depicted in Bruckner's work mirror current social events during an intense part of history.

"Pains of Youth" (Krankheit der Jugend) written in 1926, was Bruckner's first play. It depicts, with "unprecedented candor, the moral corruption and cynicism of a group of students. For these young people, youth in itself is a fatal disease. The idea of death by suicide is always present to their minds; they see in it the only alternative to certain disillusionment.". H. F. Garten, Modem German Drama

Each person is lost in an upside down world with no sense of direction. The characters in "Pains of Youth" are all extreme in their search for real 'Life' - "only death or the danger of death can bring them near enough to their goal." (Daphne Moore)

These dissolute youths are brought to life with Bruckner's "staccato dialogue and sweeping emotionalism." Although the audience sees the danger with the destruction of the characters, it is not left with a feeling of complete hopelessness in this production. Although Bruckner wrote two different endings for the play, the ending of the present production, is based upon elements from each, but is the invention of the director, Georgij Paro.

Other works of Bruckner include; Die Verbrechen (The Criminals, 1928) and Elizabeth Von England (1930), his best known play.