Outcasts in the spotlight

He’s describing the conversations between two teenagers that take place in “The Storytelling Ability of a Boy,’’ which makes its New England premiere at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater beginning Sunday.

“Storytelling,’’ by Carter W. Lewis, is about Peck and Dora, high school outcasts and best friends, and Caitlin, a teacher who takes a special interest in Peck. There are hormones and booze and a nail gun. And, of course, storytelling.

“When Peck and Dora are together, they live in their own little world where Peck can invent anything,’’ says Foster, who stars in the play. “It’s absolute madness, and that’s what makes them work.’’ Peck’s brainy and good at heart, “but, as he likes to say, he’s rocking a bit of naiveté. He knows as much about love as any other 17-year-old boy does.’’

Poor kid.

Foster is 22, but says it’s “not too terribly hard’’ slipping into the role.

“I was not a popular kid when I was in high school. I was the kid who could draw the ‘Star Wars’ poster from memory,’’ he says with a laugh. “I’m going back and listening to all this terrible music I liked when I was 17, metal-style music. I listen to it now, and I just cringe.’’

Eventually Peck is victimized by school bullies. Bullying is a hot-button issue in Massachusetts, but this production isn’t playing up that angle.

“That’s part of it, but it’s only part of it,’’ says director Robert Kropf.

“He’s definitely victimized, because he’s smart and these other kids are bored,’’ says Foster. “But if you pack a bunch of teenagers in one location, things like that always happen.’’

Instead, “the overarching thing that attracted me to the play,’’ says Kropf, “is that it touches on the power of the imagination to transcend the everyday.’’

Dora, played by Bridget K. Doyle, has her own hurts, but she tries to show a harder shell. She’s the one toting the Jack Daniels and the nail gun. Meanwhile, Caitlin, played by Dakota Shepard, just can’t keep the distance that a teacher should.

When the play premiered at Florida Stage last December, some otherwise positive reviews came down hard on Caitlin’s inappropriate relationship with her troubled students. Kropf says that he can see the potential problem in the script, but they are addressing it with Shepard’s performances: “There’s a vulnerability about this character that will illuminate the teacher’s role in the lives of the kids.’’

It’s kind of a symbiotic relationship,’’ says Foster. “They get things out of her and she gets things out of them. She needs things from Peck just as much as he needs things from her.’’

Kropf, a longtime actor at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, is directing this production under the auspices of his loosely organized Boston Art Theatre troupe. WHAT artistic director Jeff Zinn saw a Boston Art Theatre production of “Uncle Vanya’’ that Kropf directed last year, and that led to the invitation to direct “Storytelling.’’

“If anything delineates a production I’m directing, it’s that there’s almost a voyeuristic quality to it,’’ Kropf says. “I think that way the playwright is better served, because people are more drawn into the characters, more drawn into the story.’’

The actors are all familiar faces around WHAT. Shepard has been in a number of productions, but Foster and Doyle worked behind the scenes until now. Foster is a former production assistant, and Doyle is the company’s lighting designer, a job she’ll continue for “Storytelling.’’

Doyle is also 22. Actors in their 20s playing teenagers can be a tricky proposition, but Kropf says it’s not in this case.

“They’re good actors. Certain things about the way they are with each other, they have a very youthful quality, and I don’t think the audience will think twice.’’

On the Harbor Stage, Sundays-Tuesdays, July 11-Aug. 28. Tickets: $15-$31. 508-349-9428, www.what.org

Joel Brown can be reached at jbnbpt@gmail.com.