Paul Fouhy and his cast from the past introduced Alan Ayckbourn’s work to the summer community stage last summer.

“Round and Round the Garden” – part of the British playwright’s explosively hilarious trilogy, “The Norman Conquests”, played to good reviews at the Auburn Mountainview Theater.

The success of the play persuaded Fouhy (inset photo) and friends to do it again, this time producing the second part of the trilogy, “Living Together”, a comedy that’s filled with lonely and somewhat sad people trying to make the best of things.

Under Fouhy’s direction, the Auburn Mountainview Alumni Theater Company’s sixth summertime production premieres Thursday, one of six evening performances this month. The curtain opens at 7:30 each night at the theater on Lea Hill.

“I’ve always loved his plays,” Fouhy said of Ayckbourn. “They are very clever, but they also deal with relationships, time sequences and all kinds of other deeper stuff.

“It’s very British … amusing, a different style of humor,” Fouhy added. “It’s more character-motivated humor, more so than American situational comedy.”

“Living Together” fits the size and scope of Fouhy’s six-member cast, five of whom are resuming roles they played in “Round and Round the Garden”. The play takes place in an intimate living room over the same weekend.

Ayckbourn is best known for finding humor and true emotion in the unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and, at times, desperation of his recognizable, middle-class British characters.

“It’s a lot fun to do a character in a different play or to do it again, even in the same one, because you find stuff that you didn’t know was there (before in performing the role),” said Brooks Farr. The seasoned actor portrays Tom, Annie’s next-door-neighbor.

Justin Hopkins returns to the role of Norman, a complex, emotionally damaged and stunted man who wants everyone to love him but doesn’t know how to gain the affection.

“He has seven different emotions for every scene. The trick is trying to harness all of his energy and focus it in different directions at the same time,” said Hopkins, a 1996 Auburn High graduate who works today as a producer for KOMO-4 News.

To play the role of Ruth, Norman’s wife, Fouhy turned to his assistant director and company manager. Leilani Saper, who has been an actress since she was 8, earned her degree in theater at the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts and worked for three years with the Seattle Shakespeare Company.

Saper was eager to step into one of the leading roles.

“I absolutely love it,” Saper said. “(Ruth) obviously is very harsh, not very warm. … To find that harshness with her and to balance it out with something that makes her appealing and nice (is challenging). There is some reason why Norman loves her, and there’s some reason why she hasn’t completely ostracized herself from her family.”

Fouhy and his cast plan to perform Ayckbourn’s complete trilogy next year, designating one play – “Round and Round the Garden”, “Living Together” and “Table Manners” – each night.

Each of the plays depicts the same six characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house. “Table Manners” is set in the dining room, “Living Together” in the living room, and “Round and Round the Garden” in the garden. Each play is self-contained, and they may be watched in any order, some of the scenes overlap, and on several occasions a character’s exit from one play corresponds with an entrance in another.

The summer theater company is composed of actors, actresses and artists who graduated from Auburn-area high schools. The diverse cast, under Fouhy, assembles each summer to perform a benefit show.

Proceeds from ticket sales support the school’s drama students scholarship fund.

“It’s a really funny show. … I love the idea of these summer shows, getting back together with all these fun actors,” Hopkins said. “It’s a lot of time, effort and input, but it’s all for a good cause.”

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Summer theater

• Production: “Living Together”, a British comedy, presented by the Auburn Mountainview Alumni Theater Company.

• Show times: 7:30 p.m., Aug. 8-10 and Aug. 15-17

• Stage: Auburn Mountainview Theater, 28900 124th Ave. SE, Auburn.

• Cast: Brooks Farr (Tom); Leilani Saper (Ruth); Justin Hopkins (Norman); Shannon McMahan (Annie); Brandon Kinney (Reg); Jeannette Helms (Sarah)

• Director: Paul Fouhy

• Tickets: $10. Proceeds from ticket sales support the school’s drama students scholarship fund.