‘Ida’ Puts Fun and Adventure Back Into Life : Comedy explores the relationship between two senior citizens and deals with making use of time

“I feel so strongly about theater audiences,” says actress Gloria Dorson. “I give them so much credit--at the end of a day, making that choice to come here. It takes energy.”

But the incentive is sometimes strong. Dorson plays the title role in Jean Van Tuyle’s “Ida,” a romantic comedy about senior citizens getting it all together, which recently finished an extended run at Hollywood’s Court Theatre and has just reopened at The Tiffany Theatre on the Sunset Strip.

Playwright-producer Van Tuyle agrees about theater audiences, adding: “And I feel, as a producer, I’d better damn well entertain them, too, being dragged to the theater after a hard day. I’d better entertain that person. The onus is on me to do so.”

That audiences are entertained by “Ida” is proved by its long run. And, coincidentally, by the fact that it has been picked up by Fox Television for a series. The story concerns a married couple whose parents--his Jewish mother and her Irish father--are thrown together because her father, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, needs a place to stay. That romance blossoms is part of the positive message “Ida” delivers.

Director Jules Aaron says he was attracted to the project because “the play is very life-affirming. It says that relationships are possible at any time in our lives, and that being a senior citizen does not mean that your sex life is over--but there is also the possibility for romance and adventure. As both a playwright and a human being, Jean is really fascinated by the idea of adventure in our lives and the fact that our lives are never over. Adventure is possible at any time.”

This is not the first project in which Aaron has joined Van Tuyle. Last year, Van Tuyle produced the highly successful “Ladylike,” which he directed, also at the Court. It has just opened to glowing notices at Philadelphia Theatre Company’s Play & Players Theatre.

Two other productions directed by Aaron will be running concurrently: “The Mystery of Irma Vep” at Albuquerque’s Kimo Theatre and, opening this week, the Grove Shakespeare Festival’s “Falling in Love Again: An Evening with Marlene,” starring Salome Jens.

Van Tuyle is just as busy. “As a playwright,” she says, “when you’re working, you’re writing two or three things at one time. Your juices are flowing. There’s always one on stage, one in my workshop and one in my typewriter.”

That, in addition to producing “Ida” and, in the future, co-producing both the pilot and the series based on “Ida,” will fill up her days. She won’t be writing the pilot (“They took my baby, and they’re raising it!”), but is guaranteed the writing of one show during the first year’s run and two the second. “I’m hoping to have some clout, though,” she says.

The sale has opened doors for the playwright. “My agent said he can sell my things anywhere now, because I’ve sold something to Fox. Now they say, ‘Do you have anything else?’ And I think, ‘Excuse me. I’ve had these things for the past five years!’ It’s the same stuff, but they look at it entirely differently now.”

Some time ago she wrote a series pilot for a TV star who had a successful series going, and there was no interest.

“Someday when I’m out of work,” the star said, “I’ll look at it.”

Van Tuyle smiles. “I happen to know that he’s out of work now,” she says, “so I sent it back in. Now they say, ‘Who is this person?’ ‘She just sold a series to Fox.’ ‘Oh, right, then we’ll take a look at it.’ Thank you!”

In its beginning stages, “Ida” did not lean too heavily on the Alzheimer’s that afflicts Sam, the male lead. The subject is explored more deeply in the play’s final version.

“In the last three years my father died of Alzheimer’s,” Van Tuyle says. “So now there is a lot of my dad in this play. It’s also about some of the mistakes people make with victims of the disease. Sam’s daughter is doing a lot of the wrong things. But Ida’s doing all the right things to give him a wonderful life and to jam-pack every day with an adventure. It’s adventure, at any age, no matter what the circumstances. It’s actually a play about time, how much you have and what you do with it.”

“What is very uplifting about the play,” Aaron says, “is that it deals with a series of adventures that we need to be open to.”

Van Tuyle remembers that when her daughter was about 3, her pediatrician would ask the little girl, “What adventure are you going on today?” At 3, going to the supermarket was an adventure that could fire the child. Finding adventure every day is what keeps people going, Van Tuyle feels, no matter what their age or circumstance.

“Use and enjoy every day,” she says. “People don’t have enough fun anymore. I think they stagnate. They don’t do the risky, crazy things.”

Actress Dorson identifies with her character because she, too, knows about doing risky, crazy things. She’s been involved with regional theater for years in the Midwest, along with films and television. But she took the bull by the horns five years ago and moved to Hollywood on the advice of the casting director who got her a role in the feature film “Hoosiers.”

She’s been working right along, she says. “Bits and pieces, but enough to keep me going. It doesn’t seem like work to me, because when you come from theater, putting on eight shows a week, film and television seem like not working.” She chuckles at her own sense of adventure. “But my tennis has gotten much better!”

“Ida” plays at the Tiffany Theatre, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 23. Tickets: $15 to $18. Call (310) 289-2999.