OriginalModTime: 10/24/2006 10:15:25 AM

One look at the fresh-faced, mostly teenage cast and you wonder how they're going to pull off playing middle-aged New Yorkers. Yet, even without makeup and costumes, they've got presence, commanding voices, authentic accents, and the quirky mannerisms that you'd expect from the dysfunctional Kurnitz family.

"Lost in Yonkers," Neil Simon's Tony Award-winning drama, is playing this weekend at the Old Town Temecula Community Theater.

Set in 1942 in Yonkers, the show is told through the eyes of two young brothers, Jay and Arty, who are sent to live with their strict grandmother and her childlike daughter, Bella. Their mother has just died and their father must go on the road to earn the money he had borrowed from a loan shark.

They live and work in Grandma Kurnitz's candy store (which is ironic because she is anything but sweet). Bella does her best to keep the peace while getting to know her young nephews. Then Bella's brother, Louie, a small-time hood, comes to visit. In a short time, Uncle Louis opens up new worlds to the boys.

Alex Coe, 18, from Temecula, plays the 46-year-old Uncle Louie. For character analysis, Coe saw Richard Dreyfuss in the movie version of "Lost in Yonkers." He liked him, but thought he was a bit too energetic.

"Uncle Louie talks a lot, then all of a sudden, he gets angry for no reason," Coe said. "But I like him because he's bad and good at the same time."

Nick Kalllantar, 16, Temecula, who plays the kids' father, Eddie, 46, said that he looked to his own father for inspiration.

"At age 18, my father moved from Iran to the U.S. to make a better life for us," Kallantar said. "Playing someone more than twice my age took some adjusting, such as walking more slowly and using stern looks."

Jennifer Arreola, 22, Temecula, had the biggest challenge of playing a 35-year-old woman who sometimes acts like a 12-year-old.

"I'd have to think of how a child would act and believe in certain situations," she said. "Then, in other scenes, I'd go for the strong, independent woman."

Her sister, Gert, 40, played by Katie Slyter, 17, Temecula, has severe anxiety that causes her to breathe dramatically while she's talking. Gert doesn't appear until the end, but provides the most comedic relief, she said.

"It was hard for me to get the breathing and the dialogue down right so people could understand me," Slyter said. "I'd look at the script and say, 'Oh yeah, I'm supposed to breathe in here.' "

Grandma Kurnitz, 70, played by Leslie Vicchione, Canyon Lake, in her mid-40s, said she borrowed her "crabby" manner from Henry Fonda in the movie, "On Golden Pond."

"He was cantankerous, but had a lot of strength," Vicchione said. Both characters were faced with their childrearing "mistakes" and are forced to change to keep their children in their lives.

Tony Croupe, 16, Murrieta, who plays the older brother, Jay, said getting down the New York accent was his biggest hurdle. Croupe visited New York recently and was able to hear the distinctive dialect firsthand. What he didn't expect was a real, New York experience. A gay waiter in drag hit on him.

"I didn't know it was a man at first, then when I found out, I didn't know what to do," Croupe admits. "So I pretended that one of my friends was my girlfriend and put my arm around her."

Austin Kopack, 13, Murrieta, who plays Arty, is the only cast member who plays someone his own age.

"Everyone says, 'Isn't that great? You can just play yourself,' " Kopack said. "But it's harder than they think."

"Lost in Yonkers"

When: 7 p.m. today through Saturday

Where: Old Town Temecula Community Theater, 42051 Main St., Temecula

Tickets: $12

Info: (951) 693-1017, triplethreatacademy.com