All right listen up, Angelinos. One of LA’s favorite sons is answering the bell soon with a one-two combination sure to rock us with pure power and dazzle us with fancy footwork. This hometown hero, Oliver Mayer, famous for over a decade now for his boxing drama Blade to the Heat, credits his upbringing for steering him into the province of playwriting.

Marlene Forte and Will Dixon in THE WIGGLE ROOM

He relates, “My family is responsible for me getting involved in the arts. My father was a painter who also worked in silk screen, woodcuts and sculpture. My mother was into acting in the ’50s and aware of that whole James Dean school of naturalism gaining popularity at the time. When I was a teenager, I was not at all cool with any of that so I really owe it to my mother because she took me to see Zoot Suit, dragged me really, I guess, as I’m sure I was probably kicking and resisting her the whole way.

“I was 13 or 14 and had no interest in going but as soon as Edward James Olmos stepped onto stage at the Aquarius Theatre, it became such an amazing and gorgeous experience I never got over it. I think it put me into a reflective situation thinking back on what my grandparents had to deal with. So all praise to my mother for making me go.”

Mayer’s Blade to the Heat became the vehicle to slap him on the map but not before he’d punched the clock at a few institutions across the country and abroad. He matriculated at Worcester College in Oxford, England, graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and earned his MFA from Columbia University in NYC.

Then he returned home to serve eight years as literary manager at the Mark Taper Forum where he helped in the development of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and Terence McNally’s Master Class as well as his own boon to boxing. All his journeys and activities contributed to his understanding of himself as an individual and to his position within the society he was simultaneously growing into and commenting upon through his art.

John Henbest and Jossara Jinaro in THE WIGGLE ROOM

For example he declares, “I was enamored of the fights. I boxed as a young man for three and a half years. My father loved that I did it. My mother hated it. I remember I participated in a tournament, defeated my opponents and won a trophy. When I came out of the ring after accepting it, my mother was standing there. She said, ‘That’s great. And now you’re done.’ I wasn’t ready to be done with it but maybe it was for the best. It had given me a broken nose along with the trophy. Still it helped me in my personal transition from a boy to a man. Some young fellas find that transition in rock’n'roll music, some in drugs. Mine was in a series of punches to the face. It helped move me into the next chapter of my life and I believe it forced me to respect the other man.”

Along with respect it also shepherded him into areas of diplomacy. He gives another example: “When I went to Oxford, I didn’t know a soul. My first day there I did what I always do in any new city. I started walking to get a feel of the place. Before long I had gone off the university grounds and into the city which had some rough areas I didn’t know about. I went inside a pub and ordered a beer. Right away all these guys surrounded me. There you don’t order a beer; you order a pint. What did I know? This was my first day in the place. They pegged me as American right off. Americans were not very popular then because Reagan, who was president at the time, had angered Europeans through some of his policies. I managed to talk my way out of the situation. That proved to me you can be human even as your country does what other people consider inhuman things. You can still be a good ambassador for your country without the benefit of an elected position.”

Mayer also wrote his first play in Oxford. “I was 20. Now I’m 45. So that makes 25 years of plays. I must be doing something right.”

Although he’s most recognized for his plays, he’s tackled other genres too. He says, “I’ve just finished my first novel. I’ve written a lot of non-fiction in the form of essays. I’ve done several screenplays. But I find myself most at home in theatre. I believe I have the most impact in a live experience where I can affect a smaller group of people, perhaps, but with a more lasting impression. Plays are most satisfying to me personally. You can do different things in the different forms. Interior monologues in a novel can be wonderful whereas in a play they slow down the action too much. The philosophy, meaning and open-endedness of storytelling reach a greater height in a play where you can employ the input of a director, actors, designers and ultimately the audience to tell you what you’ve got.”

Mayer is sold then on the concept of theatrical collaboration. “I believe in it absolutely,” he confirms. “Nothing is written in stone. Also the world itself changes. With the quality of actors we have in theatre today I have to trust them to bring unexpected meanings or interpretations to my words. If one of them says to me during rehearsals he or she wants to experiment with something I’ve written, I owe it to myself to at least let the actor try it.”

The raw material of life with its unexpected perambulations provided Mayer with grist for the stage even as it gifted him with headings, footnotes, indices and contents enriching and enhancing his personal history. He tells of one such unforeseen yet momentous occurrence: “I came across a fun fact about Joe Papp based on a eureka moment he had. He was doing a play about people of color when he was on his way to the theatre and passed by a pimp and a whore on the street. On a whim he invited them to his theatre and later found out they were both in the arts in addition to being a pimp and a whore for real. I took this basic idea and wrote a play looking at the different aspects of love from three viewpoints: straight, gay and filial. I wanted to show how love between two people can sometimes be a painful connection. I called the play The Righting Moment from the nautical term of how a rudder can stabilize a ship from capsizing when making a sudden turn in the water. Well the play was a real train wreck, not good at all. That was the first time I met the actress Marlene Forte and I think she must’ve wondered what all the fuss was about me as a playwright.”

Oliver Mayer

He goes on to explain how this self-described train wreck evened out into a smoother ride. “That was seven years ago. Marlene and I married four years ago. I’ve written four roles in four plays for her since then. She’s got the lead in my newest play, her daughter Giselle is in it also and the best part of all this is we met through a medium we both love.”

That newest play is The Wiggle Room which opens under Don Boughton’s direction on October 1 for the Company of Angels at the Landmark Alexandria Hotel. The germination for it arose out of domestic circumstances in 2004. Mayer explains, “We lost our home. This was the house I’d grown up in. My father had built half of it literally. We were fortunate in one respect because we could sell it and get some return on it as opposed to being foreclosed.

“I remember as we were moving items out of the house at one point my brother and I were balancing this refrigerator over our heads. I don’t know how we did it. I’m not that strong so it definitely was not safe. My brother said, ‘Someday you’re gonna write a play about this and it’ll be a doozy.’ He cursed me and blessed me at the same time with that statement which kind of fits our pattern with each other. He was my older hippie brother who left home at 17 and became a tree planter in Oregon and then worked his way into scrap metal. I’m the city mouse; he’s the country mouse. But losing a place of value we had lived in and loved in and sweated over gave me a great sense of loss even as it led to an excitement of emancipation. Safety is great but sometimes not the best thing for an artist. Loss forces us to go out into the world and confront negative events with positive perspectives.

“I wrote The Wiggle Room set in a hotel with three sisters. Marlene is one of three sisters so this play is all fiction and all true at the same time.”

Mayer could make the same statement about his other current project, an opera entitled America Tropical for USC’s Visions and Voices project made possible by a grant from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. “They signed me to write the libretto to the composition of David Conte. We decided on the story of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros who was hired in 1932 to render an historical painting on Olvera Street. When they unveiled it, they saw an Indian crucified on a cross with an eagle flying overhead. The mayor’s office and the city council grew so nervous over it they destroyed the image and deported Siqueiros. I was impressed by both the artwork and the politics of it which many people think marked the beginning of the Chicano movement. I wanted to use that story as a prism which bounces light even though you can’t be sure where the light may bounce to.

“I structured the story to move backwards in time to the founding of the city in 1781 and then forward to the near destruction of the city during the Rodney King riots of 1992 and finally to have that polarizing image come to life. David and I came together to create this saga honoring those artists in our history who often do the work but don’t get the credit for the political breakthroughs they provide us. David’s music is so passionate. I hope I represent the story well.”

America Tropical has scheduled three openings in October (see schedule at end of article) including Pico House on Olvera Street near where the Siqueiros mural originally appeared. The press statement: “Three performances for three demographical audiences representing a hybrid of cultures and races celebrating the mix that is LA. Metaphorically speaking, Oliver Mayer is Los Angeles.”

Mayer doesn’t exactly downplay that sentiment but he doesn’t wallow in it either. “You know, I like this horse I’m riding on,” he declares. “With my bloodline I’ve got the Latino thing nailed down with my mother, the European continent with my father. I’ve lived in the valley; I’ve lived in the city. I’ve been educated around the world but I’ve brought it back home. Without putting on airs as an artist I’m no fly-by-night and I’m no carpetbagger. I think LA is the most potentially exciting cultural place in America. New York and London are great and I love Chicago but to me LA is the most exciting. I tell my students to be true to who you are and never forget where you came from.”

The students he refers to are USC School of Theatre MFAs and undergraduates whom he has served as associate professor of dramatic writing since 2003. He approaches their instruction with a recreational practicality. He explains, “I tell all the new ones and remind all the older ones there’s two individual parts to the word ‘playwright.’ There’s the ‘wright,’ the one who constructs something from nothing. But there’s also the ‘play’ which we had better not forget or ever overlook. I talk to them about toys. I buy them toy gliders and we go outdoors where I have them launch their gliders into the air. Here’s the thing: you can never be sure which way they’re gonna go. You can throw them in one direction only to see the wind flip them in a different direction. Sometimes they’ll soar in a beautiful arc. Sometimes they’ll crash against a tree or the side of a building. Plays are the same way. You shouldn’t worry about the results.

We should always start with that same attitude kids take to their make-believe games with their entire hearts, minds and souls. We’re just big kids with keyboards and dictionaries to help lock down our imaginations in a finite form.”

Finally when quizzed about the honor bestowed upon him in the ’90s by Buzz magazine, which named him among the nation’s “100 coolest” people, he responds, “I thought it was great at the time. Now I’m more lukewarm about it. If there’s anything cool about me these days, it’s got nothing to do with the business I’m in or my position in it other than I really love what I do. I’ve got a lot of great friends and I like to work with all of them”

That’s Oliver Mayer, feinting, jabbing, piling up points, going the distance as the hometown favorite who kayos us in dramatic fashion through his dramaturgical dexterity.

The Wiggle Room, produced by Marlene Forte, Lynn Freedman, Eileen Galindo and Kila Kitu for The Company of Angels, opens Oct. 1; plays Thur.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 7 pm; through Oct. 24. Tickets: $12-$25. Company of Angels Theatre, Alexandria Hotel, 501 S. Spring St., Los Angeles; 213.489.3703 or companyofangels.org.

America Tropical schedule: Fri., Oct. 22 at 7 pm; Pico House, 420 Main St., Los Angeles; 213.485.8372 or olvera-street.com.

Sat., Oct. 23 at 3 pm; Parkside Restaurant at USC, 3771 S. McClintock Ave., Los Angeles; 213.740.0483 or usc.edu/dept/pubrel/visionsandvoices.

Sun., Oct. 24 at 6 pm; Museum of the American West in Griffith Park, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles; 323.667.2000 or theautry.org.