Director sees himself in 'Match' character

When Chicago director Steve Scott read Stephen Belber's play, "Match" (opening Saturday at the Highland Park-based Apple Tree Theatre), he saw a bit of himself in the main character. And that made him eager to tackle the production.

"The central character, Tobi Powell, is an artist who has gone through a number of creative phases in his life," Scott says. "Now he fears he is at the end of his career. He is older, and he is not getting as much work as he was getting."

Scott is not in that situation. He is currently one of Chicago's busier theater artists. An associate producer at the Goodman Theatre, he also directs shows all around town. This is his second show at Apple Tree. He last directed the Jeff Recommended comedy "Stones in His Pocket" in the fall of 2005.

But even though Scott himself is busier than ever, he admits he has been reflecting on the fact that he has practiced his art for more than 30 years. That too drew him into the play.

"The play is very much about what happens when you get older," Scott says. "I am a little younger than the character in the play, but there is this sense I have that when you are older the world starts to pass you by. And how do you deal with that?"

And how you make peace with the past.

"We discover in his younger days he may have sired a son without knowing it," Scott says, "And that perhaps son (now an adult) re-enters his life."

Scott saw a lot of echoes of his own life in that as well.

"I don't have a son," he says, "but all of us who grew up in the '60s and '70s felt we had a certain kind of freedom in the world, a freedom without consequence, and as I get older I discover that there are consequences for everything I did in my life. There are choices that I made, that we all make, as a kid that have come to haunt me."

So why is the play called "Match"?

"The premise of the play is that young guy (who might be Powell's son) wants to do a DNA test to see if it is a match," Scott says, "that one kind of match. But it is also about kind of finding a family that fits. That is your match. And there is the incendiary quality to the play that causes a certain amount of friction. Like a striking match."

But don't let the fiery title fool you. According to Scott, it is very much a play about acceptance and reconciliation, "about taking ownership of what you did when you were young. And finally growing up at the age of 60."