FIELDER'S CHOICE `SIX FEET UNDER'S' JEREMY SISTO DIGS DEEP FOR COMPLEX `TAKE ME OUT' ROLE.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

Darren Lemming, the star center fielder of the New York Empires (read Yankees) who makes a matter-of-fact announcement that he is gay, may be the character who sets the action of Richard Greenberg's play ``Take Me Out'' in motion.

Mason Marzac, Darren's closeted business manager who gets sucked into being a baseball fan, gets to deliver a couple of amazingly written speeches about life and our national pastime.

How about Shane Mungitt, the barely literate homophobic relief pitcher who nearly turns ``Take Me Out'' into a tragedy? Let's just say it's certainly not a role that should be entrusted to a lightweight any more than a Major League Baseball manager would want a career .200 hitter batting cleanup.

``You have to win and appall an audience,'' Greenberg says of Mungitt. ``If either (element) is missing, something is missing from the role.''

Playing Mungitt in Randall Arney's West Coast premiere of ``Take Me Out'' at the Geffen Playhouse (opening tonight at the Brentwood Theatre) is an actor whose recent work has included the title roles in the TV movies ``Jesus'' and ``Julius Caesar.'' Jeremy Sisto, hungry for a good role and on hiatus from ``Six Feet Under'' (where he has played Rachel Griffith's manic-depressive kid brother, Billy Chenowith, since 2001), is only too happy to take the mound at the Brentwood.

And the New York-based Greenberg, who will see the Geffen production, is delighted to have Sisto in that part.

``I've always found (Sisto's) work in TV really sort of fascinatingly complex and weirdly touching,'' the playwright says. ``The guy who played the role in New York (Fred Weller) was fantastic, but it's absolutely wonderful to have someone who is so basically different and so implicitly right.''

Sisto appreciates the praise, although he admits fitting into Mungitt's uniform hasn't been the easiest transformation.

``Early on, I was little frustrated and feeling like I was not able to make my character understood or fully rounded,'' says Sisto. ``And I felt like he was coming off stereotypical.''

``Then I realized, to some degree, Greenberg does see things in a fairly black-and-white way in regard to some of his characters. It's sort of an added accomplishment if we're able to find sympathy or understanding ultimately for the story itself. That's why I wanted to do the role so badly. I knew it could keep me interested for a couple of months.''

A conversation with Sisto, held before rehearsals just as ``Take Me Out'' was entering previews, ranges from acting to athletics to play-going (and play producing) in L.A. The Grass Valley-born actor, who turns 30 in October, grew up in Chicago where he first appeared at the prestigious Goodman Theatre at age 6. Even today, with more than 40 TV and film roles to his credit (including ``Clueless'' and ``Thirteen''), Sisto says he occasionally feels like an impostor.

``I've been doing this, like, my whole life, and I always took it for granted that I wanted to be an actor,'' says Sisto. ``Sometimes in the movie business, I feel like a traitor, like I tricked my way in and I don't really belong here. But doing a play, it's OK. I feel like somehow I inhabit the space sort of comfortably. There's not that real sense of desperation involved.''

Or at least it's a different kind of desperation. According to Sisto, actors have to tap into an ``elusive and intangible'' element to help inspire and sustain a performance. It's the quest for that element that keeps Sisto returning to live stage where you can't ``fix'' a bad take.

Baseball players, he figures, must continually undertake a similar quest.

``From what I know of the people who play baseball, it is the most superstitious sport,'' he says. ``It's so based in one moment. You've got one moment to go out and perform, to throw the 100-mile-per-hour pitch or to catch the ball when it's hit to you. You're performing in such an instinctual way.

``When you're at your best both in baseball and in theater is when you're unaware of what you're doing,'' he continues. ``Then when you get done with it, you're like, 'Oh (expletive), what the (expletive) did I just do - and how do I do it again?' ''

Star athletes go through slumps. Some can even lose their abilities and end up leaving the game. Can that happen to actors? Have there been times when Sisto felt he was in enough of a slump to want to walk away?

``Every night, man,'' he returns. ``Working over the years, I have gained a sort of understanding about the bare minimums of what you have to do in order to be able to tell a story. But inspiration - as far as giving something inspired or invigorating? That is very elusive and, yeah, there have been times I have thought, 'I should never be here.' Other times I feel like I have something to offer.''

In Sisto's case, having something to offer occurs more often than misplacement, says longtime friend Daniel Henning. The artistic director of the 99-seat Blank Theatre Company in Hollywood, Henning has worked with Sisto several times since the actor has been in L.A., including a production last year of Sisto's solo show, ``Sanguine.''

Several well-known actors have trod the boards at the Blank and moved on to higher-profile projects. According to Henning, Sisto is the only one who consistently checks in with Blank doings and looks to return.

And Henning is always anxious to have him back.

``He's always stretching the boundaries, and that's what I love about his work,'' Henning says of Sisto. ``Not that I know this for a fact, but I guess that 'safe and secure' is not something he's really interested in.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

TAKE ME OUT

Where: Brentwood Theatre, Building 211, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., Brentwood.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Oct. 24.

Tickets: $38 to $64. Call [phone].

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Photo:

no caption (Jeremy Sisto)