"Brighton Beach Memoirs" Needs Teen Performers

“If only I was born Italian. My mother makes spaghetti with ketchup… what chance do I have?” Eugene is the protagonist and narrator. In many ways, his traits are typical of his age. He complains about his family, he is raging with hormones (particularly shown by his fixation on his cousin Nora), and he has big dreams of playing baseball professionally. That said, growing up during the Great Depression, in a working-class Jewish family, gives him stresses—and wisdom—beyond that of a normal teen.

“You don’t get too far talking to Laurie. Sometimes, I think the flutter in her heart is really in her brain.” Laurie is Blanche’s daughter and Nora’s younger sister. Although her sisterly bond with Nora consists of pushing her buttons and commiserating over their shared experience of growing up without a father, she is aged, in a way, by a heart condition that her mother and aunt overdramatize that prevents her from handling stress or major physical activity.

“School? Momma, this is a Broadway show. This is what I want to do with my life. Algebra and English isn’t going to help me on the stage.” Nora Morton is Blanche’s daughter and Laurie’s older sister. She dreams of dancing on the Broadway stage, despite her mother and uncle’s desire for her to succeed in school. She is the subject of Eugene’s affection, despite being his first cousin. She lives by the philosophy that, at the age of sixteen, she will do whatever she wants.