It's like that dream where you show up at work only to realize that you forgot all your clothes. Except for Ryan Morra, it's no dream.
Come Friday, March 21, Morra will live the dream, or nightmare, when the curtain rises on the Elden Street Players' latest performance, Terrence McNally's "Love! Valour! Compassion!."
Helping to pack the sold-out opening night audience in Herndon's Industrial Strength Theater, will be dozens of Morra's co-workers from Americorps in Washington, D.C. routing him on as he takes it off.
"It's not about the nudity," Morra, who plays clothes-phobic Ramon. "Sure, initially, I was a little nervous, but that went away at the first audition. Really, it's the story, besides now it feels so natural."
Rich Klare, the show's producer, doesn't understand all the fuss. "He's a young good looking guy," Klare said, laughing. "Now if it were me out there, that's another story."
Morra, who lives in Alexandria and works in Southeast D.C., said he had stayed away from theater for three years and he wasn't necessarily looking to jump back in, unless the perfect script came along. "Instantly, I fell in love with the story," he said. "I didn't really even know it before I read it."
At this well-respected yet out of the way community theater company tucked in the dark corner of a nondescript business park, controversy is nothing new. "Were known for being a little edgy," said Klare, the former president of the Elden Street Players. "But this is even kind of unique. I know it's not going to appeal to some of our regulars and it definitely has a particular edge that might turn some people off."
The edge, besides the full male nudity, includes strong gay themes and dialogue that for some may seem a very long way from
"Oklahoma!" or "Singin' in the Rain." From the writer of "The Full Monty" and "Ragtime," "Love! Valour! Compassion!," has been described as a haunted comedy and it won the 1995 Tony Award for Best Play. "This is not something that comes around every day," said the play's director, Chris Dykton.
While the ticket sales have been steady, Klare said, the theater did, for the first time, reach out to gay-friendly groups, like Dulles Triangle, and gay-friendly publications, like the Washington Blade, to advertise the show.
"You've got to give the company credit," said Dykton, who is directing his first play at the Herndon theater. "They are willing to take chances. The great thing is that they are so supportive. It has been such an amazing experience. I've loved working with these guys."
Jack Stein, who works for the National Institutes of Health, said he was moved the first time he saw the three-act play on Broadway several years ago. The chance to play Gregory, even if it was a little off Broadway, was too good for this part-time community actor to pass up. "Being one of the older actors in the play," Stein said, "I really feel connected to the piece. It depicts life during the 1980s and focuses on the gay male and AIDS."
The memory play tells the sometimes funny, sometimes intimate and sometimes dark stories of a group of eight gay men over the course of three long summer weekends at a house on a lake in upstate New York.
And while the characters in the play are gay, Stein insists that the material transcends all lines. "I was so moved by the words and I had never seen a gay male portrayed in such diverse ways," he said. "It really is appropriate for all. I guarantee that the caliber of production will equal anything on a professional level."
Morra said the script and the interaction with the other six actors in the play has been personally, very rewarding. "I have learned so much about myself," he said.
Dykton agreed. "Some of our characters are dealing with AIDS, death or they have lost a part of themselves or they are simply growing old," said the director. "It's the universality of the human experience. Who can't relate to that?"