Jerker Play

IT is a sweaty afternoon in the tiny Silver Lake theater where director Michael Kearns is rehearsing actors Dean Howell and Joe Gill. The concentration is intense on the small stage as the performers reenact a phone call between two lonely men in 1985 San Francisco. Looking outward but never at each other, they traverse fantasy and reality, trying desperately to connect across the void. Some moments are erotic, others emotionally fraught.

The first time he read "Jerker," Michael Kearns was so moved he couldn't move. Sitting outside on a sunny day about 10 years ago, the Los Angeles actor-director breezed through the 40-page script. Then he discovered he was unable to rise from his chair.