Free Download Program Boys Life Howard Korder Pdf File
How do you tell a coming-of-age story about characters who don't want to grow up? That's the dilemma of Howard Korder's the 1988 comedy now playing at the.Focusing on three males closer to their 30s than their teens, the play follows their attempts to discover what it means to be men, a question that for generations seemed so obvious it wasn’t asked. You just did it.
Boys' Life Howard Korder Pdf
Worked your butt off to make sure your kid had it better than you.The young men of Korder’s play are of that later generation, who have perhaps had it too good without realizing it. In a changed world, these infantilized men strive to find themselves and the meaning of their manhood, struggling against instinctual drives to discover the new norms of a carefully balanced but skewed society’s view of that manhood.This territory has been trod previously by such playwrights as David Mamet and Neil LaBute, but Korder takes a lighter touch with his male angst. Yes, there are times when you want to slap these characters across the face and just say, “Grow up, already!” But, probably like their parents before, and the women drawn to them now, we indulge them, pinch their cheeks and pat them on their heads, as they continue to grasp at the youth that is inching away.Told in a series of quick, energetic scenes, each sharply delineated by director Harold Gervais, 'Boys' Life' follows the three who have been friends since college as they attempt to maneuver their way through the modern world, specifically their relationships with women. Watching these stunted adolescents through each episode is not always a pretty journey, but the appeal of the actors and the banter of Korder’s script make it an enjoyable one.The play opens with a scene that establishes the primary trio of relationships. Amid a continuing frat-boy diet of cold pizza, beer, cigarettes and joints, we meet Jack, Phil and Don, friends who likely should’ve gone their separate ways after college but just never figured out how get by without one another. These are boys whose primary reading materials are comic books, but they excuse that by calling them graphic novels.Jack, the leader of the group, would appear to be the most settled and mature. He’s married and has a young son.
Richard Mayer plays him with a sharp eye and a sharper tongue, giving the character a devilish appeal. As the play goes on, it’s clear that he’s actually the least mature of the three and the most resistant to change. When not attempting crudely played pickups for afternoon trysts, he’s living vicariously through the sexual exploits of his single buddies (which aren’t nearly as exciting as he imagines them to be). Mayer gives the cynical Jack just enough coy attraction that the audience isn’t ready to give up on him.Jake Bartush is the lovelorn, sad sack of the trio, Phil. The ultimate follower of the group, he is an innocent who wears his emotions on his sleeve. Bartush plays him as the slightly nerdy stoner, capturing a sense of gawky social ineptness that likely took root some time in junior high school.
He also reveals a genuine heart, though a sad one, beneath the goofiness.As Don, the looker of the bunch, Matt Story displays the greatest degree of growth. It’s through his internal struggle that we best see Korder’s concept of the difficulty of what it means to become a man in today’s world. Even as he stumbles his way into a relationship with Lisa, regularly putting his foot in his mouth, he acts without thinking. His impulses result in a messy one-night stand – merely to see if he could get away with it – that finally leads to his epiphany, the only character to truly achieve one. Story plays well Don’s struggle to grow up, a step that can only occur by breaking free of his college buddies. What:The women of the play aren’t given the stage time of the men.
They are dropped into the scenes mainly to react to the actions of these three misbehaving little boys. Nevertheless, they create strong impressions and distinct characters with the work they’re given. Leslie Boles is effective by playing against her natural stage persona as Karen, a self-effacing woman drawn to Phil but resistant, knowing it’s a relationship that will never go anywhere. In their own way, the two are cut from the same deprecating cloth taking an odd pleasure in their mutual unhappiness. Their awkward courtship ritual makes up the play’s funniest moments.Lisa, Don’s girlfriend, is sweetly played by Lucy Faust. She balances her own character’s insecurities with a path for her life that might or might not include Don.
Showing a mature independence, she doesn’t need him nearly as much as he needs her.Ashton Akridge provides a clever foil to Mayer’s Jack, as the jogger who flirts with him but quickly sees right through him. As Carla, Jack’s wife, Nicole Rae provides the flipside, someone who should see through him but possibly has chosen not to.Lena August adds an element of mystery to what otherwise might just be the trampy role of Don’s one-night stand. The hints of her scarred emotional needs show that it’s not only men who are sometimes befuddled by contemporary gender roles.In a brief role, Benjamin Clement draws one of the show’s funniest lines, playing the man who keeps interrupting the potential hookup between Karen and Phil.Gervais sets a brisk pace that keeps the biting satire flowing, while building a degree of tension. The inevitability of the final scene is so readily forecast, however, that its dramatic punch misses some of its impact. The ultimate resolution is nonetheless satisfactory.The only major misstep of the show is shifting it to the present day. Originally set 25 years ago, the updates to contemporize the script do more harm than good. Tacking in references to Netflix and Taylor Swift, for example, feel forced.
Free Download Program Boys Life Howard Korder Pdf File Free
Yes, the poseurs, hipsters and slackers of today face many of the same challenges of these men, but they are the screwed up children that these screwed up guys would eventually have.