When Richard Hirsch says that he lives much of the time in his head, he’s talking about a fairly furnished house, fully dimensional inhabitants and robust conversation. And in the case of his new play, ‘The Closeness of the Horizon,’ these silent dramas spilled out onto the page’into compelling drama. Hirsch, who grew up in Pacific Palisades, traces his lively interior life to his family, who ‘were very argumentative.’ Not withstanding the lively debates at home, Hirsch absorbed the tempo and angst of his school years here. In fact, the action in ‘Closeness’ is based on a road trip Hirsch took in the summer of 1969 with Ken Baker and Chris Marlowe, star players on the Palisades High School basketball team that won the City championship that year. Hirsch had just finished his sophomore year at UCLA. While he had not been on the team in high school, Hirsch loved the game and served as team manager and coached the summer leagues. He was the one who proposed the road trip, which took the boys on a six-week adventure to play basketball. ‘We drove around the country hitting towns with major colleges looking for pick-up basketball games,’ he recalls. ‘We also played a lot in high school gyms. The funny part is that this was the summer of 1969 and we missed major moments in history: We were in upstate New York and wondered where all those people were going. There was also the first moon landing and Chappaquiddick.’ Hirsh, who has written over four dozen short and full-length plays to date and won numerous awards, focuses on the personal to some degree, either people or issues. ‘This play is very personal,’ he says. ‘The main character Paul’s best friend, ‘G’ is going to pass away, and G’s wife asks Paul to visit her dying husband. A catalyst of sorts, this event prompts Paul recall his high school adventures and buddies and to wonder about his friendships and, more than that to question what it is about him that people drift away. He questions G’s wife and another friend on these thoughts.’ Hirsch has structured the play, directed by Darin Anthony and opening tomorrow at the Odyssey Theatre, to go back and forth between 1969 and the 1990s. He calls this play the most personal, emotional and psychological he’s ever written. ‘It could be good or it could be melodramatic and bad.’ he says. ‘I am scared to death.’ The play, which was introduced at the Theatre Palisades Playwrights Festival three years ago, received useful feedback. ‘I heard that the themes resonate with what is going on in people’s lives,’ Hirsch says, adding, ‘There is humor and pathos, as there is in all my plays. It makes it easier for people to connect with the characters.’ After graduating from UCLA in the early ’70s, where he had studied business and economics, Hirsh went into the furniture business with his brother, Lorne, who was four years older. After selling Hirsch Business Interiors in the late 1990s, Richard partnered with his nephew to create Advanced Electronics Group, which designed and created highly specialized electronic surveillance equipment. After he sold the company in 2003, Hirsch was finally able to write full time. In the late ’70s, Hirsch started writing plays, spurred on by a number of teachers and development workshops. ‘I never took a formal playwriting class, but I am a good mimic and learn best by examples.’ He was encouraged after winning a Drama-Logue award for the 1978 comedy ‘Morning Glories.’ But the blush soon disappeared when he failed to sell anything. ‘I even tried screenplays,’ he says. So, Hirsch got back into real estate, and met his wife Susan, a former interior designer who now writes a blog on Socalnurseryplants.com. Unlike the old days when he used a typewriter, which meant that when he made changes to a script he had to retype the whole thing, making it hard to finish sometimes, he admits, ‘Now I use Final Draft software to write. I write a play, workshop it, have it read and make adjustments.’ The result of all this productivity is that he has several plays that are ready to produce. For ‘The Closeness of the Horizon,’ Hirsch has taken on producing duties, not something he normally likes to do, but ‘I got tired of waiting.’ This meant choosing the director, whom Hirsch has worked with previously, and casting the roles. ‘It was tough finding Paul (Bruce Noziks) because he is in every scene and had to move from being a limpy teenager to a stronger adult who is going through a tough time.’ In the end, Hirsch offers no big answers, no takeaway for the audience except that ‘I want the audience to think about it.’ ‘The Closeness of the Horizon’ runs through June 24 at The Odyssey Theatre, 2055 Sepulveda in West L.A. For tickets ($25-$30) call (323) 960-1054 or visit plays411.com/horizon.
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