BOOTYCANDY

Play by Robert O’Hara. Directed by Summer L. Williams. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. At the Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, Through April 9. Tickets: $25-$60, 617-933-8600, www.boston

theatrescene.com

Each rehearsal for SpeakEasy Stage Company’s upcoming production of “Bootycandy’’ starts with a different Michael Jackson song. Tonight’s number: “You Rock My World.’’ As the cast warms up by dancing along, director Summer L. Williams reviews her plan for the rehearsal time.

“We’re going to clean up and tighten each scene,’’ she says to her cast. “We’re going to make sure each character is anchored in their reality.’’

“Bootycandy’’ marks the first time Williams has directed for SpeakEasy Stage, but the Company One Theatre cofounder says the comedy’s freewheeling, episodic structure isn’t too much of a stretch from the work she’s done before.

“As a director, I think I’m drawn to the plays that are a little messy,’’ says Williams, who recently helmed Company One’s “An Octoroon.’’ “In the rehearsal room, my job is to create a little order, and then make sure I clearly communicate why it’s OK to be in the mess.’’

Robert O’Hara’s raucous “Bootycandy’’ unfolds as a series of sketches that have much in common with the broad humor of the ’90s TV show “In Living Color,’’ tempered by a poignant personal story. A man named Sutter uses humor and familiar stereotypes to reflect on his experiences growing up gay and black. Maurice Emmanuel Parent plays Sutter as a young boy, a teenager, and a man, while four other actors take on all the other roles.

“Bootycandy’’ — the title is a euphemism for penis — “has a heightened comedic sense and style,’’ says Williams. “Some of the jokes are bawdy, some are offensive, but there’s a layer of hurt and a layer of ugly truth present just below the surface.’’ (The SpeakEasy production, which contains nudity, is recommended for adults.)

It’s not a coming-of-age or coming-out-of-the-closet story, says Williams. “O’Hara never questions himself for identifying as gay,’’ she says. “It’s more about looking back at all the things that make someone who they are.’’

Parent, who just completed a role as a Christian minister in colonial Rhodesia in the Nora Theatre Company’s production of “The Convert,’’ says he’s attracted to characters with this sense of duality. The character he played in “The Convert’’ was desperate to distance himself from his past, but couldn’t escape it, while Sutter, he says, “is taking an inventory of his life, looking back with humor at the moments in his life that made him who he is.’’

The vignettes, says Parent, reflect some of O’Hara’s own upbringing — the playwright grew up in Cincinnati, graduated from Tufts, and got his MFA in directing at Columbia — but “we don’t know which ones are fact and which are fiction. Because we don’t know where that bleed happens, that makes developing this character more interesting.’’

Parent, 36, is about a decade younger than O’Hara, but they share cultural references, especially Sutter’s fascination with Michael Jackson.

Both Parent and Williams say their day jobs as teachers help them in the rehearsal room.

“The focus of all this is exploring people, mining the depth of human experience, and having fun while we’re doing it,’’ says Williams, who has taught drama at Brookline High School for 12 years. For Parent, who teaches drama in the Boston Public Schools and a musical theater class at Boston University, the goal is “to make the storytelling clear.’’

Williams says her job as director for “Bootycandy’’ is to “shepherd audiences through the quick turns of this roller coaster ride. The puzzle pieces of this play don’t come together in the ways you might expect. But I hope people come out savoring all the moments, great and small, that make someone who they are, and asking not ‘How do these fit together?’ but ‘Why do they have to?’?’’

‘Mrs. Potatohead’ returns

In the 1990s, “The Mrs. Potatohead Show’’ was a much-loved and hilarious combination of sketches, musical numbers, and monologues developed by performers Margaret Ann Brady, Dorothy Dwyer, and Lucy Holstedt. Sometimes naughty, sometimes topical, always on target, the trio found the funny in moments and characters we meet every day but often take for granted.

After regular appearances at venues throughout the city, they went their separate ways, but now they are reuniting for “The Mrs. Potatohead All-New Old Show,’’ as part of the Charlestown Working Theater’s 40th anniversary celebration. For just three performances — March 17, 18, and 19 — they will revive some of their favorites, including Gladys and Marie; the irresistibly offensive barfly Stenky Gamuche; Sylvia Ibbetson’s “Midwestern Rap’’; their showstopping musical tribute to “lady parts’’ called “Bite This!’’; and new material, including a piece on “The House of Demoulas.’’ Although subtitled “A Celebration of Irish Woman-Being,’’ you don’t have to be Irish to laugh out loud at their bawdy humor. Tickets are $20. Call 617-242-3285, or go to www.charlestownworkingtheater.org.

BOOTYCANDY

Play by Robert O’Hara. Directed by Summer L. Williams. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. At the Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, Through April 9. Tickets: $25-$60, 617-933-8600, www.bostontheatrescene.com

Terry Byrne can be reached at trbyrne@aol.com.