Some shows are clearly passion projects. Alright – most shows are passion projects, there’s little enough money in theater to warrant the time, cost, and effort it takes to mount a production to make you do it for any other reason. But the team behind the production of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea playing at the American Theater of Actors, transferred from Anaconda, Montana, really want you to know that this is a passion project. It’s in how they talk in the notes and the dedication in the program. The executive producers, Dr. Cynthia Hsiung and Nick Milodragovich, want you to know how they saw their friend doing this show for a crowd of 26 people in a small town in Montana and just knew it needed a bigger audience so they brought it to New York.

In some ways, it’s not that different from many other productions in black box spaces around the city and the country. Sparse set (to focus on the story telling but also incredibly budget friendly), not much in the way of designers or crew listed in the program (in this case a lighting designer who doubled as the board op, Max Stroeher, and two stage hands but no other creatives or stage managers listed except the director, Tessa Welsch), and a room full of people you can tell are doing their damnedest to put on an incredible show. It’s even complete with the type of small cast performer driven script that is exactly the kind of play you’d see done for scene work in acting classes in colleges and studios (which is actually how producer and performer Tashia Gates first became convinced to do the piece – seeing co-star James Liddell do the first scene in their time at the Nancy Banks Studio).

But honestly? You can see what’s compelling enough about Gates and Liddell’s performances to make them want to take the leap to bring the show to New York for a limited run.

The play is about two strangers, both dealing with big emotions and big hurt they don’t know how to properly express or process, who meet in a bar and spend the rest of the night reaching for and pushing away the possibility of connecting with each other just to have chosen someone to tell what they needed to tell. As Danny, a man who is quick to violence and seems to not know how to turn to anything else, Liddell shows pain and confusion and anger swirling around a tender, sensitive core. Gates is absolutely fascinating as Roberta. She’s bold, reckless, desperate, and extremely vulnerable. They seem to have both been guided well by Welsch – as the show progresses and they peel back layer after layer to the raw nerve at the center of these characters, it’s evident the amount of work and care that went into creating the performances.

The best art is personal. It’s created with passion and drive. And to be honest, while I don’t think the production, the script, or the performances are entirely perfect (some of which admittedly comes down to my own preferences in style – it’s a great script but one that in my mind can leave a lot of opportunities for Acting instead of just … acting), I’m really not inclined to nitpick a team of people who are clearly acting on those principles. Acting with love. With grace. With openness and understanding. It’s what art is meant for. And this team made something messy and beautiful with this intimate little show about two hurting souls striking out, physically and metaphorically, in hopes of connection.