Once a year for the past four years, I've directed a play. First, there was the theatrical adaptation of Catch-22, then came the seedy tale of morphine-addicted criminals called High Life, and last year, I presented a highly-popular version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This time around, I tackled Eric Bogosian's subUrbia. With a cast of nine in the their early twenties, the play is filled with mouthy youths who trash themselves and the corner convenience store where they hang out over the course of a night. Even with all their wild antics, the kids are all right.

subUrbia is an archetypal tale of cynical and disillusioned young adults in the 1990s. Stuck in the suburbs, the characters complain about everything and accomplish very little, kind of like I did at their age. With abundant energy and little inspiration, the suburban characters envelop much of the prominent attitudes of kids today. The play pulls the audience in several directions, cracking jokes one minute and challenging and fighting the next. The emotions and intentions of the characters are all over the place, very much like the 20-somethings roaming all over America.

A main trio of guys who hang out at the corner represent energy, sarcasm and disillusionment. Buff is the enthusiastic party animal, Jeff is the cynical college drop out, and Tim is an alcoholic racist Air Force vet. They swarm around each other, harass the young Pakistani owners of the store, and drink late into the night. One of their school mates, Pony, has gone on to rock stardom on MTV, and he returns to visit The Corner and plans on taking away Sooze, the girl he carried a torch for in high school and is coincidentally Jeff's girlfriend. Everyone gets worked up one way or another, but they all ignore Bee-Bee, the introverted girl who eventually becomes the suburban martyr.

Directing at the Vortex (the local community black box theatre) means producing your own show as much as directing, and I brought in my old theatre buddies to get the show up. Getting committed people to assist a show without any monetary reward is not easy, but I usually find good people to help me. The tech weekend before opening consisted of hanging lights, building the set, painting a billboard, drinking whiskey and Bud, smoking weed, stealing a parking curb from a vacant business, and reminiscing about the good old days. I tend to take on the attitude of the play I'm directing, so a lot of youthful indiscretions resurfaced during the six-week rehearsal process. Is there such a thing as method directing?

The cast was by far the youngest I had dealt with. I've always had a variety of age differences in my casts, but Bogosian's play called specifically for actors in their early twenties. I had only worked with one of the nine actors before, so I had to learn the best ways to motivate each of them. Since their characters, social lives and focus went off in several different directions, each actor needed different tactics to be motivated. I pat some of them on the head and kicked others in the pants, but they all got to a quality level in time.

Opening night was on Friday, and the audience ate up the dialogue and antics of the youth. If nothing else, subUrbia is the type of play Albuquerque does not see very frequently. My guys are wacky and cynical, and my girls are sexy and emotional. At the end of the rehearsal process, I was proud and impressed with what the cast had accomplished.

The strange part of directing is that once the play is up, my job is done. The show's starting point is my finish line, and I'm pretty physically and emotionally wiped out. I'll attend about half the shows and once again return to being just one of the audience members. I try to be an actor's director, letting the cast find new levels and moments on their own once the play is up. My stage managers run the show now as I slowly step away. The weaning process must occur, and I have to admit it's always awkward for me. I'm still in this uncomfortable stage right now.

But now, subUrbia is up and running, and I'm pleased with the outcome. It's a good play, and that's all I could ask for. As a director, I always shoot for the best play no money can by (the budgets are rather meager), and I believe I accomplished that. For most of the month of May, my kids of subUrbia are making a mess of things at the theatre, and I couldn't be happier.

Chris Jungle has not been acting his age lately.