Can ‘Nudity Required’ Make the Big Leap? : Playwright Hustles to Keep Comedy Alive

Steven Oakley describes his script as a mix of “Benny Hill nudity” and “Abbott and Costello Go to Hollywood.”

It’s the story of two hustlers who rent a theater under the pretense of staging a nude play but are more interested in nude auditions.

“Is Nudity Required?” has been on stage for four years now, making it one of Los Angeles’ longest-running plays. The show has survived not by popular demand--the audiences are small, at best. But Oakley refuses to let it die peacefully.

“It’s not an intellectual play like a David Mamet or Sam Shepard,” the playwright says. “But it’s funny.”

The comedy had a short run at a Hollywood theater several years ago. When that ended, Oakley kept it alive by opening his own storefront non-Equity theater in a shabby business district near the Burbank Airport.

Since then, he has continually tinkered with the play in search of a successful version. There have been 10 rewrites, seven directors and 400 actors.

Now, Oakley has purchased an expensive home videotape camera and is transforming his script into an ultra-low-budget film which he hopes to sell to a video distributor or cable company. He heard about someone who did this sort of thing and got paid $80,000.

His Big Chance?

“This is my shot at moving up, at some small success,” Oakley said. “I’m way beyond the point of no return. At the age of 38, I can’t turn back the hands of time and become a doctor or something useful in our community.

“Have I wasted my life or am I on the verge of something big?”

An executive at one video distribution company said Oakley’s chances of selling to a major distributor are slim. But, he said, there are “companies out there that are stupid enough to buy anything. Fly-by-night companies.”

And at Magnolia Playhouse the mood is determined as, each night, a handful of cast and crew meet with Oakley for six-hour videotaping sessions.

The claustrophobic theater has 40 seats and a dusty stage. The air conditioner is noisy, so they have to leave it turned off. The place grows uncomfortably warm under spotlights.

Patrick Thomas plays the lead in the video version of “Is Nudity Required?” He has been acting for several years and has appeared in low-budget films and temporary soap opera roles. Like the other actors, he’s agreed to work for a cut of whatever the video might sell for.

Oscar Williams is lending a hand as the acting and directing coach. Williams, who has written and directed several major-studio films, including Warner Brothers’ “Black Belt Jones,” a kung fu movie, and “The Final Comedown,” with Billy Dee Williams, said he got involved with the project because he wants to help young people break into film.

“I’ve seen worse,” he said of Oakley’s script. “It’s not going to compete against ‘Rambo,’ but it’s got a chance.”

Oakley hovers continually during the taping. When the cast argues during a difficult scene, he tries to keep things calm by calling for a break and ordering pizza.

This is just one more frustrating day in 17 years of struggling for success.

Oakley wrote his first play in 1978--after seven years as an unsuccessful screenwriter--and had it staged at a church theater in Hollywood. There followed a series of odd scripts and little-known playhouses.

One play set Shakespeare in modern-day Hollywood. Another depicted six senators and their wives held hostage in Cuba. That one was a musical comedy.

“I thought it was a drama,” he recalled. “Yet when I first staged it, people started laughing.”

Oakley persisted.

“I’m at the extreme end of the theater world. Small, small audiences,” he said. “The kind of theater I do, well, the playwright has to rent a theater so his work can be shown. But it’s in my blood.”

His wife, Margaret, is sometimes upset by the time theater takes away from their marriage--she works nights while he is writing and he must spend his days dealing antique furniture to support his theatrical habit.

The inspiration for “Is Nudity Required?” came just after their daughter, Annie Oakley, was born. Oakley admits that part of his inspiration was money. He wanted to write something commercial, something that would elevate him beyond the status of struggling playwright.

Bare skin and sexual innuendo, he figured, might just do the trick.

So he created Howie and Fritz, the show’s main characters, and set them off in search of disrobing actresses.

The ensuing dialogue ranges from sophomoric humor (“How do you know they’re all fruit flies?” “Are you kidding? They’re all lisping.”) to self-deprecation (“Won’t the critics ream us for having no production value?” “Don’t think of it as having no production value, think of it as artistic license.”).

And, some nights, there are more people on Magnolia’s stage than in the audience. But Oakley will not surrender.

“In a way, this show has a life of its own,” he said. “If it isn’t successful, I believe that maybe it’s the rewriting that would make it better. Revisions and re-revisions.

“Maybe change the title.”