STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Patsy Wygle looks as if she’s going to be frozen forever in her role as Katharine Gerard, a mother who lost her son Andre when he was just 29.

Her eyes are fixed straight ahead. Her arms are folded defiantly. And she has nothing to say to the man who once was her son’s lover, even though it was she who stopped by his Manhattan apartment

“I didn’t make him gay,” he protests as she notes that it’s the end of the familial line with her husband’s recent death.

The chasm is deep. But it’s one worth exploring along with Katharine as she’s challenged to face how society has changed around her in the nexStage Theatre’s staging of Terrence McNally’s “Mothers and Sons.”

The play, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play in 2014, starts at 7:30 p.m. tonight  through Saturday, Feb. 25, at the nexStage Theatre in Ketchum.

Boise thespian Nick Garcia plays Cal Porter, Andre’s former lover. As part of the generation that dared to begin coming out of the closet, he has internalized homophobia. The first time he tried to use the word, “husband,” he says, nothing came out.

“We were ready for anything,” he tells Katharine. “Well, we thought we were ready for anything.”

Cal describes the anguish of living during the time when AIDS was a death sentence.

“Everyone was dying. I couldn’t save anyone,” he says. “We learned to help one another in ways we hadn’t before.”

“We weren’t afforded the dignity of marriage,” he adds. “Maybe that’s why AIDS happened.”

The Cal Katharine has come to confront now has what once was unthinkable—a husband and an 8-year-old boy.

Will Ogden, who is 15 years Cal’s junior, is a sucker for men who like “Moby Dick.” He met Cal online and they proceeded to have a son who doesn’t think to question a family that doesn’t match the two-parent, two-kids family that was the face of “Leave It to Beaver” and the “Donna Reed” show.

“It’s a really cool family dynamic,” said New York actor Richard Lindenfelzer who plays Will Ogden. “The play looks at how different generations deal with tragedy. And it looks at how different generations are dealing with homosexuality. My generation’s is a little more cool with it than that of Cal Porter’s generation. His was afraid of becoming outcasts if they came out. Will’s like: What’s the issue?”

The play has an intriguing way of looking at our evolving understanding of family in today’s world, agreed Director Bruce Hostetler.

“I really like the mix that this play presents,” he said. “Katherine is from a generation when homosexuality wasn’t talked about. Her son lived through the transition period when gay people did come out but it was risky. Cal’s partner is of the generation that probably came out in high school. It’s not like there wasn’t any prejudice, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as that for Cal’s generation. And the 8-year-old—he doesn’t even think about it.”

Will Lamoureux and Cooper Salvoni, both second graders at Community School, share the role of 9-year-old Bud. Lamoureux shelved his hockey and ski racing temporarily to act in the play. Salvoni kisses his gecko “Orangey” and Chihuahua “Flash” goodbye each time he makes the journey to the nexStage.

“Will’s pretty excited—he seems to enjoy interacting with the adult actors,” said his mother Deb Robertson, medical director for St. Luke’s emergency department. “Up until now he’s been a dinner plate in company B’s ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ “

Hostetler likens the play, which garnered a Tony Award for Best Actress for Tyne Daly, to a jewel box, given its intricate layers and well-written dialogue: “Throughout the play you’re digging, digging, digging down into what’s going on.”

Tickets are $25 for general admission and $35 for reserved seating, available at www.nexstagetheater.org or by calling 208-726-4857.