9-11 FIREFIGHTER PLAY TO DEBUT READING TELLS OF CAPTAIN STRUGGLING TO WRITE EULOGIES.

Byline: CAROL ROCK Staff Writer

NEWHALL -- For Mike Levine, it's nearly impossible to read the script of ``The Guys,'' a play about a fire captain dealing with the deaths of eight of his men in the collapse of the World Trade Center.

``The first time I looked at the material, I was shocked for two days,'' the New York native said. ``I cannot even get through a single read without breaking down.''

Levine and Christina Rideout will do a staged reading of the show at 8p.m. Monday at the Repertory East Playhouse as a fundraiser for the California State Firefighters Association.

``Just thinking of the people who never came home is horrifying, but the guys who answered the call and went in knowing... I'm not worthy to shine their shoes.''

Rideout, whose husband's cousin was one of the passengers killed on Flight 93 when it crashed into a Pennsylvania field, said reading the play made her feel the shared pain that swept the country five years ago.

``The writing is simple and direct,'' she said. ``Although New Yorkers feel this is their pain, in the greater sense of things, everyone felt the loss personally, which is communicated through the play.''

``The Guys'' is an autobiographical two-person play, written by Anne Nelson, a professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York. After the Sept.11 attacks, a friend asked Nelson to help a fire captain who was having trouble writing eulogies for his fallen firefighters.

With funerals looming just days away, she sat down with him and talked about the eight men, their idiosyncracies, their quirks and especially professionalism, coming up with the tributes he needed and finding that her contribution of putting people's lives into words was a worthy one. After the experience, Nelson asked the captain for his blessing to create a play from their conversations.

The resulting script was produced five weeks after the attacks -- at TriBeCa's Flea Theater, just seven blocks from ground zero, with Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray playing the journalist and fire captain, respectively. To date, it has been presented in 45 states and 10 countries. This is the play's Santa Clarita debut.

Producer-director Ovington Michael Owston first read the script shortly after it was published in 2001.

``We decided to do it as a fundraiser, not for the REP, but for the California (State) Firefighters Association,'' he said. ``The script proves the immediacy of theater and its ability to heal wounds right away.''

A free preview of the show will be held exclusively for Los Angeles County firefighters at 7tonight; those attending are asked to wear their uniforms or business attire.

Monday's benefit, for which a $75 per-person donation is requested, will begin with an hors d'oeuvres, wine and dessert reception at 7p.m., followed by the performance at 8p.m.

Across town the same night, drama students at Valencia High School will present ``With Their Eyes: The View From a High School at Ground Zero,'' a play written by students of New York's Stuyvesant High School, four blocks from the Twin Towers.

``The students at Stuyvesant, through a series of interviews, tell the story from a high school student's perspective,'' Valencia drama instructor Stephen Whelan said.

Most of the students performing were in junior high or elementary school five years ago, he said. But his fears that the students might not relate or remember the attacks were quickly dismissed, as each remembered distinctly what they were doing and how they responded.

``It's a wonderful opportunity for the kids themselves to create a show, to take a tragic event and turn it into a creative outlet. We're doing our best to be true to their original vision.''

Junior Jenny Loring, 17, said that her first read of the play was ``weird'' because it was so similar to how she was feeling on the West Coast.

``There was the fear and shock, but it also became a bonding experience,'' she said. ``You expect it to be a downer show, but its core is a testimony to human resilience. You come out feeling hope.''

Emily Fleisher, 17, said the true-to-life perspective made her want to do the show.

``It talks about the tragedy and the life that came after, the patriotism and the love for country that developed, but it also touches on the good that came out of this event.''

carol.rock(at)dailynews.com

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Valencia High School will put on the play ``With Their Eyes: The View From a High School at Ground Zero'' on Monday night.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer