Bob Morris’s ‘Assisted Loving’ Presented As Staged Reading At Guild Hall On July 28

As if watching his octogenarian widower father reenter the dating scene was not awkward enough, Bob Morris also agreed to help his dad find a romantic partner.

He found himself in the position of “pimping and screening,” trying to procure dates for his father.

Mr. Morris, who penned the Age of Dissonance column for The New York Times, recounted the endeavor, which he dubbed “Assisted Loving,” in a memoir, a comedic monologue, and now a play, which will be presented as a staged reading at Guild Hall in East Hampton on Friday, July 28, starring Richard Kind and Mercedes Ruehl.

The true story takes place both on Long Island and, naturally, in Florida. Palm Beach, to be exact, where Mr. Morris’s father, Joe, was a snowbird.

“It was based on a bunch of columns I had written in The Times that I could tell struck a note, because boomer kids like me were standing there with their mouths agape wondering what to do with their newly single parents,” Mr. Morris explained during an interview this week. “So I would get a lot of responses when I starting writing about my father’s dating travails. ”

Mr. Morris was astonished that only three or four months after his mother, Ethel, died, his father wanted to date. But he came to understand, saying, “He’s like a lot of these men. They’re helpless. They don’t know what it’s like to live alone.”

His father thought Mr. Morris—his single, gay son—could help.

Mr. Morris thought that idea was ridiculous, saying that the women on HBO’s “Sex and the City looked “totally under control” compared to his dating life. He added that he was so convinced that being single was fine that he would even research it, quoting statistics on how more than half of New York City residents are single.

“Before ‘Sex and the City’ was on the air, you didn’t have all this dating as an extreme sport,” he said. “You didn’t have people posting on social media how crappy this date was in bed, or that ‘She’s fatter than she looks in her picture.’ It’s become this search-and-destroy mission. People are so defensive and one of the things that this play is about is the idea of not looking for perfection, and then you have a chance of finding it.”

That was the lesson his father taught him. “He taught me how to fall in love, inadvertently.”

In addition to romantic love, “Assisting Loving” is also a tale of familial love.

“This is a father and son love story,” Mr. Morris said. “I never thought that I could love my father so much.”

Mr. Morris had performed his “Assisted Loving” story himself in 2006 as a comic monologue at the D-Lounge at the Daryl Roth Theater in the East Village. The book, “Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating With My Dad,” was originally published in 2008.

The play debuted at Capital Repertory Theatre in January and with director Gordon Greenberg, who will also direct the reading at Guild Hall.

Mr. Morris credited Mr. Greenberg with helping him get the story from page to stage. “It’s only because of his faith in the core humor and heart of the story that it went through 20 revisions,” he said.

He pointed out that the play has been revised again: Rather than two acts, it’s now one tight 90-minute act.

Mr. Kind, who previously performed in a staged reading of the play at the 92nd Street Y, will reprise the role of the father, named Sol.

“I have to say, the way he took it on, and inhabited the spirit of my dad, made me fall in love with playwriting,” Mr. Morris said of Mr. Kind’s performance.

Brian Sills and Max Wolkowitz, who both appeared in the Capital Repertory Theatre production, will play the character based on Mr. Morris, David, and David’s love interest, respectively.

Ms. Ruehl is new to the work, replacing Tovah Feldshuh, who was previously scheduled to take part in the reading but withdrew because she was cast as the president in the new CBS series “Salvation,” Mr. Morris noted.

Ms. Ruehl plays Sol’s love interest as well as every other woman Sol dates, and Mr. Wolkowitz will play every man David dates.

Mr. Morris said it’s a “dream cast.”

The David-Sol dynamic is that of a tightly controlled, cynical gay son and his overbearing, unchecked Yogi Bear of a dad, Mr. Morris said. “I think it would be an amazing ‘take your parents to the theater’ night for sure,” he went on to say. “It’s definitely the kind of thing that parents and kids could see together—as long as the kids are over the age of 18. They will walk out and have a different perspective of their relationship with their parents.”

Mr. Morris grew up in West Islip—his father had a Main Street law firm in Bay Shore— and now he splits his time between New York and Bellport. He’s also been a Hamptons summer resident, even playing trombone in the Sag Harbor Community Band. He received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at Stony Brook Southampton, where he studied playwriting with screenwriter and playwright Jon Robin Baitz. He said he’s contributed many columns to The Times about Hamptons culture and behavior—often bad Hamptons behavior. A staged reading of “Assisted Loving” will take place at Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton, on Friday, July 28, at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $30 to $50. Call 631-324-4050 or visit guildhall.org.