It is "Risk," a film on videotape that employs music video techniques and local teen-age actors to educate viewers about AIDS.

(That summer, the stage manager for a Tamiris production was a hopeful teen-age actor from California - Dustin Hoffman.)

At first, the youngsters listened quietly as four teen-age actors from the troupe known as Looking In Theater played out their parts.

Smaller than life, the teen-age actor Macaulay Culkin showed up.

In fact, all the teen-age actors have had to become amateur falconers.

The teen-age actors are consumed by solemn passion about their cause.

What is new is a crop of more than a dozen child and teen-age actors giving extraordinary performances in movies in which few people live happily ever after.

From beaded dresses to a silver bugle, Ms. Verdon's belongings soon found themselves in the hands of the teen-age actors.

But the teen-age actors, who all belong to DeSisto's Theater Ensemble, could almost give the cast members of "Rent" a run for their money.

And new television series are running out of teen-age actors to hire as they jockey to become the next "Dawson's Creek."