Los Angeles has a reputation for being full of unhappy people who aren't very nice to know. Perhaps the competitive nature of the film and television industry is to blame; perhaps it's the industry itself, with it's emphasis on appearances over substance. Whatever the truth may be, acclaimed actor John Glover, now performing at Arena Stage for the first time in 20 years, has found that leaving his home in Los Angeles and returning to Washington has restored some of the joy that had drained out of his profession.

"I had lost a joyous element about being an actor," says Glover. "When I began being an actor, I loved it, and I did it with abandon. I've lived in L.A. for almost 15 years now, and I've gotten sucked in a little bit to that success game that's played out there, and I wasn't enjoying my work. Part of my objective [in coming to Washington] was to come to learn how to play again. I must be one of the luckiest peiple in the world--I have a profession where I can play dress-up and make-believe, and I wasn't enjoying it. What is wrong with this picture? I wanted to get back to the joy."

Glover has the title role in Arena's Tom Walker, a world premiere by area playwright John Strand. Walker is a hapless but intelligent fiddler in colonial America who sells his soul to a creature he thinks is the devil. While he may seem thoughtless at times, Walker is also empathetic enough to understand a drunken friend (played by J. Fred Shiffman) even when most people find him unintelligible. His perceptiveness rewards him in the end, when he joins with the devil in another, less expected agreement.

In coming to Washington, Glover has followed a similar path, fleeing California's devil to find another at Arena Stage. The stakes in each place may be the same--his soul--but while Glover was in danger of losing it in one place, he won it back in the other.

"I'm having a good time," Glover says. "I try to look at the parallels of myself and the character and what's happening in the world today. He's someone living on the edge and trying to survive. He's out fiddling and then he gets this opportunity which he sees as hateful, but he's damned good at it and now he's got to learn to live with it. I see him as a kid--a big child who's never learned how to take responsibility for anything. That must be a part of what life is about. Some do it earlier than others. Some never learn. One of the reasons I took this job was that I had worked with [director] Kyle Donnelly before, and I realized I had something to learn from her. There were some gifts she was willing to give to me, so I wanted to work with her again. Also, I grew up two hours from here, in Salisbury, Md., and my dad is in Salisbury, quite alone, so it gave me an opportunity to be near him. So I use the job for some personal reasons and to try some new things about being an actor."

Glover has received five Emmy nominations for his roles in television--including Victor in An Early Frost, the groundbreaking 1985 drama about AIDS--and won a Tony Award for his stage role as the Jeckyll twins (reprised in the film) in Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassions! Glover says he still thinks about the latter play "a lot."

"It was an incredible production," he says. "We were all lucky enough to do the movie except for Nathan [Lane], who wasn't available, so Jason Alexander did [the role of Buzz]. I think part of the reason we all enjoyed being a part of it was that we were changing people--allowing an audience to find out Gay men are human, that we have relationships and we have problems just like straight people. People would laugh and laugh. We got to them and changed some points of view. We felt useful to society."

Glover previously appeared at Arena Stage in Plenty, with Blair Brown. When he confronted his younger self in a photograph in the theter's archives, Glover was amazed.

"I couldn't believe how young I was," he says. "I'm 56 now. I knew nothing then, and I think I know even less now, but at least I'm aware of it."

As an actor, Glover is interested in keeping things spontaneous, and he says the company at Arena is flexible enough to try new things.

"I feel like a pig, sometimes, looking for truffles," he says, "maybe just kind of snouting around in the mud."

His instincts have stood him in good stead professionally: Glover has been widely celebrated for his success in a variety of character roles. With time and achievement, he has become more relaxed about being known as a Gay actor.

"I graduated from high school in '62," he says, "and I didn't know any people who were Gay. I'm sure there were people, but I didn't know any. For years and years, I guess, I was very uptight about being a Gay actor. I thought it would make me less hirable."

The search for jobs, Glover finds, is his least favorite part of his chosen profession.

"An artist can go paint, and a writer can go write, but an actor needs to get hired, needs somebody to say, 'Here, come and do this,'" Glover says. "That's the hard part."

After 20 years, Glover says, Washington "seems very friendly," though he hasn't had much of a chance to explore the city this time around.

"I was always so exhausted after rehearsal," he says, "I'd come back and put my feet up."

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