Six years later, the Local Actors Guild of Saratoga (a theater company new to the Saratoga Area) and Studio Arts Entertainment will present a staged reading of this thought-provoking play. The reading stars JJ Buechner, best known for his portrayal of Arnold in Studio Arts Entertainment’s production of Torch Song Trilogy, and Amy Rosen, best known for her portrayal of Bella in Homemade Theater’s Lost in Yonkers.

The play hits home for both actors, Rosen spent her younger years living in NYC, while Buechner had firemen in his family and growing up, spent a lot of time in firehouses.

“My uncle was a fireman in Schenectady, so this play hits home for me,” said Buechner. “I can’t imagine what the families of the lost firemen felt. For me, being able to tell their stories is like a tribute to the fallen firemen and their families.”

Nelson’s straight-from-the-gut beautifully written script attracted Buechner and Rosen to the project. “It’s the story of two people who would have never crossed paths in any other circumstances that come together as friends and mourn,” said Rosen.

The play’s only action scene grows out of a shared confidence, part of the building sense of understanding and warmth between Nick and Joan. When he mournfully comments on how nobody has fun any more she tells him about a tango wedding party given by a couple who met at a tango club. This prompts him to reveal that, like the men in uniform whose uniqueness he’s trying to convey, he too has an unexpected side. He’s been taking dancing lesson for years.

The play is not all gloom and doom. Nelson uses comic relief deftly to break the tension at several points. They laugh at some of the stories he tells. One of the lost firefighters, Barney, was always getting into trouble. Another, Patrick, the captain’s best friend, was an astute critic of the firehouse’s lousy cuisine. Then there is Bill, “just an ordinary guy, a schmo… but you can’t say that in a eulogy.” And Jimmy, the new guy, still on probation and whose first “real” call was that fateful day. Nick met him only once, on his first day, and can’t even remember what he looked like.

Gradually, they emerge as individuals, one by one. And you feel the pain all over again. Because, as The Diary of Anne Frank demonstrated decades ago, the only way to truly understand an enormous tragedy is to break it down into its individual components, the people who were involved.

The reading is directed by Buechner and Rosen, who are two of the founding members of The Local Actors Guild. This is the first collaboration by the new theater company.

“We figured that the two characters we are playing came together as one to collaborate, that we should honor that and do a collaboration of our own,” said Rosen. “We, as a group, hope to bring shows like The Guys to life.”

We may not need The Guys to remind us that Sept. 11 happened. But as the “wounded city” goes back to being “beautiful and gleaming” we need to remind ourselves that what makes New York the city people from Oklahoma, and Indiana and Dubuque fall in love with year after year are all those unique New Yorkers – like Joan, and Nick – like Bill Doughterty, Jimmy Hughes, Patrick O’Neill and Barney Keppel, who perished that day, but live on in the play.

The Guys will be presented on Tuesday, Sept. 11, at the Saratoga Arts Center, 320 Broadway at 7:30. There is a $10 suggested donation. Seats are limited.