Darius and Twig at The Kennedy Center

"Teenager" is a language so difficult that only a few adults know how to speak it -- and even then their accent is terrible. But author Walter Dean Myer was flawlessly fluent his entire life. His novels -- among them Monster, Fallen Angels and Bad Boy -- inspired fierce devotion among young adult readers who discovered characters that sound (and feel and look) like them. Now one of Myer's last masterworks, Darius & Twig, comes to the stage in a world premiere production at the Kennedy Center. Experience the travails of these two teenage best friends -- one a writer, the other an athlete -- who use their unique gifts to rise about inner-city struggles. Eleanor Holdridge directs an adaptation that showcases Myer's "unerring eye for what's real and meaningful in life."