Patrick J. Adams rehearsing "9 Circles" with Joe Holt; Photo by Justin Zsebe

We circle, huddled on bar stools, next to tall wood tables inside a dimly lit cavern. Everything around us pulses with the potential energy of visionary art and rock-n-roll.

Perhaps it’s the concrete floor and velvet-lined walls, or the dormant rock concert set-up behind us—piano, amps, mic stands. Or the full bar, ready for business, to the right. A monolithic steel door opens to the magical space beyond it — one of the most distinctively converted 99-seat theaters in Los Angeles. This is Bootleg Theater.

In this circle, I am joined by five inventive minds: playwright, actor, director and two producers who (respectively) own and manage Bootleg. We discuss the importance of listening and having meaningful dialogue. We talk about generosity of spirit and the absence of ego. But the main focus of our conversation is 9 Circles, a new play by Bill Cain.

The award-winning 9 Circles will have its Los Angeles premiere October 21 – November 12 at Bootleg. Directed by Justin Zsebe, this psychological thriller about a young American soldier who served in Iraq features Patrick J. Adams, Paul Dillon, Joe Holt and Arlene Santana.

On the Saturday before opening night, I was invited to have a sneak peek inside the creative circle.

ONE: The playwright, Bill Cain

Bill Cain; Photo by Jenny Graham

“Bootleg and [director] Justin have offered us the experience of doing a thoroughly original production,” says Cain. “It’s the most exciting venue that I’ve had the chance to work in for a while.”

Cain is well known in LA for his award-winning Equivocation (Geffen Playhouse, 2009) and his equally lauded and widely produced Stand-Up Tragedy (Mark Taper Forum, 1989). 9 Circles, like so many new works, went through a lengthy developmental process.  Among its earlier stops were Ojai Playwrights Conference in 2008 and South Coast Rep’s Pacific Playwrights Festival in 2009. Its premiere occurred at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley last year, with a subsequent production in Boston last March. It’s published in the anthology Acts of War: Iraq and Afghanistan in Seven Plays (Northwestern University Press).

What started as something Cain says he “never intended to write” became a play with a powerhouse role for a young, male lead. Cain shared early drafts with the young actor he had in mind to possibly play this role when the time was right.

TWO: The actor, Patrick J. Adams

Patrick J. Adams; Photo by Frank Ockenfels/USA Network

Don’t be fooled. Patrick J. Adams (USA Network’s Suits) may have a laundry list of IMDB credits and a chiseled profile to swoon over, but he’s an accomplished stage veteran. The relationship between this talented young actor and Cain was a significant catalyst behind this production.

“Patrick as an actor makes me confident as a writer,“ says Cain. He goes on to talk about the freedom to write young, demanding roles because he knows that Adams will rise to the challenge. Their collaboration through five past projects, including the Ovation Award-winning Equivocation at the Geffen, has only strengthened this bond between writer and performer.

After 9 Circles was ready, it was Adams who began the campaign to make a Los Angeles production happen.

THREE: The director, Justin Zsebe

“I really wanted to find a young, exciting director doing young, exciting work,” Adams says. And as he asked around town, “Justin’s name kept coming up.”  Conversations commenced between the director and Adams, who recalls a conversation about managing the production schedule with his busy film and television projects. “Justin said, ‘This isn’t a summer play. This is a fall play.’” This immediate thinking about the play in its larger context, serving the play through the practicality of production and contemplating how it will affect an audience, seems a hallmark of Zsebe’s style.

Justin Zsebe

To look at Zsebe (pronounced zee-be) — who’s in his 30s and appears a little scruffy with shaggy hair, retro glasses,very much rebel-without-a-cause –  you can imagine him riding his motorcycle on the 101, easily cutting through stand-still, rush hour traffic. His leadership style feels pragmatic, effortless. He actively listens to everyone in our circle. He absorbs carefully before responding about the rehearsal process, “This process has been about conversations and collaboration, which is what theater IS. Our dialogues have always been moving toward discovery. My job is finding where our lines intersect and then moving things forward.”

Cain, who is in his 60s, has a vision of the play as something cross-cultural and reaching across generations. This makes the partnership of his well-grounded storytelling with  Zsebe’s provocative eye feel synergistic. “The structure is so good,” Zsebe emphasizes. “It’s so easy to trust the writing.“ The circle nods in agreement.

FOUR: Alicia Adams, Bootleg artistic director/owner and producer

After meetings between actor and director, then director and playwright, an alliance of three was formed. Things were falling into place. The missing piece became where to produce. Enter the 99-seat venue, Bootleg Theater.

Arlene Santana and Patrick J. Adams in "9 Circles"; Photo by Patti McGuire

Zsebe is no stranger there — he directed the plays in the Fun Family Festival of Tragedy at the Bootleg last summer. He’s the artistic producer of L’Enfant Terrible, which produced that children’s-oriented festival. Patrick Adams was also well-acquainted with the space, and he says he believed it would provide “an investment from the venue, not just a rental.”

“We are a theater first,” Alicia Adams says to me. Twice. “We are a theater first. And a [rental] venue second.”

Alicia Adams (no relation to Patrick) has owned and managed the space for more than 10 years. She has marinated in LA’s theater scene, using her experience to build Bootleg into its current form. Landing a prestigious play like 9 Circles in its first Los Angeles outing is not taken lightly.

“I knew it was a long shot,” she admits. “We’re an oddball, we don’t fit into the [larger resident theater] model.” Bootleg is also not a typical 99-seat venue. It is an artistic home, a space cultivated to become a hub for music and all forms of visual and performing arts. Its mission includes a desire to provide support and resources for artists creating “daring interdisciplinary work.” Bootleg strives to be a partner in creation.

FIVE: Jessica Hanna, Bootleg manager and producer

Jessica Hanna; Photo by Will Watkins

On-site manager Jessica Hanna re-iterates, “We’re doing ‘experimental’ within the 99-seat plan…which is already experimental in nature.” This means bending to economics and creating a business model that can sustain the artists who need the space and support to create work.

One way Bootleg creatively tackles this financial challenge is through using its spacious lobby with full bar as a popular music venue several nights a week. The adjustments to becoming a cross-platform performance venue have evolved over the last two years. The learning curve of catering to music performers, theater productions and their disparate audiences has been illuminating. And yet cross-pollination is inevitable as the Bootleg group seeks opportunities to expose audiences to all the events happening in this eclectic space.

“We start theater at 7:30 pm,” Hanna states. This half-hour jump on the usual start time allows the venue to host two events in one night. As people leave the theater, the music is just getting started. The bar is open. The night doesn’t have to end. Conversations about the play just seen can continue without relocating. And music fans learn about the theater productions and can return another night to catch the show.

Flexibility in such a space is key for all involved. And 9 Circles was no exception. “They found a way to make daytime rehearsals work,” Hanna explains. “Because that’s what we could do, and they made it work.”

SIX: The Design

Patrick J. Adams. Photo by Patti McGuire

The circle has sworn me to secrecy. And I will keep it. I can only tell you, that if you have experienced productions at Bootleg Theater, you have never experienced it like this. I am speaking, of course, about the design.

I asked a few times, “Is that the set? Is that really what’s going to happen?” The eyebrows rise with excited nods in response.

Designers Jason Adams (scenic), Lap Chi Chu (lighting), Adam Phalen (sound) and Kathryn Poppen (costumes) have taken the challenges posed by the play and found creative design solutions.  “There was a constant focus that we were building something for the audience,” explains Zsebe. Ideas were proposed, thrown out and re-worked until the final design, now under completion, was locked in.

SEVEN: The Rehearsal Process

What’s easy to see, as stated by Cain, is the “undefended generosity about process” — a process that began with a simple chalk circle drawn on the floor and has grown exponentially throughout the rehearsal timeline.

Patrick J. Adams rehearsing with Joe Holt; Photo by Justin Zsebe

The playwright just opened a production of his new play, How to Write a New Book for the Bible, at Berkeley Rep before arriving in Los Angeles last week for the final tech at Bootleg. “It’s a great gift to have Bill in the last week of rehearsal,” Alicia Adams immediately chimes in. “He pulled it all into focus,” adds Patrick Adams.

Cain expresses how his late presence could possibly undermine a production. “It’s painful to come this late in the process,” he admits. But he attributes his ability to do so to the willingness of all parties in the circle to embrace him as a new addition to an already engaging, inclusive collaboration. Cain says he was assured by Zsebe and the actors that they would make room for him.

EIGHT: The Play

The play is described to me as something “inspired” from true events, an incident from which Cain invented the fictional story. “One man who tried to stand in front of the tank of all war,” says Cain.

Patrick J. Adams and Paul Dillon; Photo by Patti McGuire

Alicia Adams captures the feeling of the group:  “I think what keeps us all going is knowing this [play] simply has to happen. We must tell this story.”

The story follows an honorably discharged American soldier, Daniel Reeves, who is arrested and prosecuted for alleged crimes committed during his active duty in Iraq. Reeves is then forced to navigate a web of military bureaucracy from commanding officers to army psychiatrists.

The structure and title are loosely adapted from the nine circles of hell, as outlined by Dante in the first part of his 14th-century epic poem, Divine Comedy.

9 Circles won the 2011 Steinberg New Play Award from the American Theatre Critics Association (for an outstanding new play produced anywhere in the US outside New York). So it appears to have a good chance of  becoming a widely produced and discussed play. San Jose’s Renegade Theatre Experiment has scheduled a staging for next month, and Curious Theatre in Denver is planning to do 9 Circles next January.

NINE: The Audience

Paul Dillon and Patrick J. Adams; Photo by Patti McGuire

As I watch these artists talk process, clarify facts, lightly joke about challenges they have overcome as a team, I hear genuine respect across the table. I hear gracious exchanges of the “thank-you”s we so often lose in any pressured environment, let alone a high-profile premiere in the throes of tech week.

I spend a few moments studying the play’s postcard. It features an extreme close-up of an eye, the iris a burnt amber in color—it could almost be a ring of fire. The symbolic nature of the circle, the fire, does not escape me. In so many ways, we gather in the theater as we do a drum circle, a ritual, a sacred space…we gather together with the hope to experience something we didn’t know we needed. I am reminded of reasons for theater and art, to enlighten and find better ways to be human. To question. To feel. To inspire.

Zsebe says it quite simply, “We are moving toward the audience entering as the final piece.”

The time has come for Los Angeles to experience this circle.

9 Circles, presented by Bootleg Theater. Opens Oct. 21. Plays Thurs.-Sat. at 7:30 pm. Through Nov. 12. Tickets: $25; $18 for students/seniors/military with valid ID. Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Boulevard, LA. 213-389-3856. www.bootlegtheater.org.

Amy Tofte is a Los Angeles playwright who received her MFA in Writing for Performance from CalArts (California Institute of the Arts). She has seen her work produced all over the country and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a founding member of Fierce Backbone in Los Angeles (a theater dedicated to all levels of play development) and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America.