Cast Member - The Teenager

THE TEENAGER

Although they shared many typical teenage concerns about their self-image, dating and boy-girl relationships, there were differences, too. Alice loved “Big Band” music and Judy loved “Latin Dance” music. Alice channeled her energies into academic achievements and was voted the “Most Popular Girl” in her class. Judy channeled her energies into her art, (staying up late on weekends to paint and sleeping late in the mornings, driving her mother to distraction) as well as into cheerleading and talking on the phone with friends.

Construction of the “teenager” proved to be the greatest challenge the artists encountered in their collaboration. Due to the weight of the individual components and problems with their adhesion to each other, creative technical solutions were required to obtain the desired effect.

The artifacts used in this construction to recreate the essence of a 1950’s teenage life include bright colors, a poodle pin worn on a favorite felt skirt, and a smiling face which give a lightness and a carefree quality to what was a much more innocent era. Imagine having 78-rpm records as your only choice for listening to your favorite music. Worse yet, how inconvenient to have to share the family phone in order to stay in touch with your friends.

While brainstorming ideas for depicting their own teenage experience, they found themselves filtering it through their later experience as parents of teenagers and noting the differences.