John DiResta runs into odd characters all the time. As a police officer in a special transit unit dealing with the homeless, he has ministered to disoriented Deadheads who, after the death of Jerry Garcia, took up forlorn residence in a subway tunnel.
The most unusual person in his life at the moment, however, is the Rev. Steven Harris, a Paulist priest and a producer of DiResta's one-man play, "Beat: A Subway Cop's Comedy," which opens on Nov. 20 at the Kaufman Theater.Harris has a checkered past. Before converting to Roman Catholicism and taking Holy Orders, he acted. He directed "The Taffetas" off-Broadway. He became an agent.
Today, Harris says Mass and performs weddings at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan. At the same time, he works as a producer at Abrams/Gentile Entertainment, known primarily as a producer of television cartoons. The Paulists, who helped produce the film "Romero," have given Harris the green light to step up his involvement in theater.
"I was drawn to the order in the first place because they have an interest in communications," he said. "This year, they have opened the door and said, `Go ahead and establish this niche and see where it leads.' "
In this case, it led to Caroline's Comedy Club, where DiResta, who describes himself as "New York's funniest cop," performed material on his life with the transit police (unofficial motto, he said, "You ride, we hide"). With the help of courses at Playwrights Horizons, DiResta developed a one-man show.
Harris seems to have a hard time deciding where the church begins and the theater ends. He describes his pastoral duties as being on an off-Broadway schedule at the moment. He used material from "Rent" in his Good Friday sermon. And it's hard for him not to notice something eerily familiar about the atmosphere at an 8 a.m. Mass.
"It's very like a bad matinee audience," he said.
- William Grimes