It was a challenge for director Gerry Gerringer to describe Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House without giving away the plot. The show, which opened Actors’ Theatre’s 25th season September 18, combines laughs with poignant drama in a female-centric production.

“It’s about understanding that we really need to appreciate life as it comes to us and search out the love and the beauty,” said the Santa Cruz theater veteran.

Inspired by an overheard comment about a depressed housekeeper who refuses to clean, The Clean House opens with Mathilde (Veronica Tjioe), a Brazilian maid too blue to do the cleaning up for a female doctor and her husband. Her employer, Lana (Irene Teegarden), prescribes anti-depressants, but life is not that neat. Exploring relationships both familial and romantic, the play twists and turns, exposing its theme of life’s unpredictability in unexpected ways.

“The two Latino women in the play bring a sense of joy and beauty and humor to this very WASP family… who have thrown themselves into a lifestyle that doesn’t have deep rewards.” Gerringer said. “They come to help them understand that laughter is one of the greatest joys that we are given as humans.”

John Robinson plays Charles, Lana’s husband and the lone male in the cast of five. He shared his appreciation for the strong role women hold in the play. Often in theater, he noted, the principal characters are male and women are ancillary.

“It’s wonderful to be part of a play where, in this case, the male character is a supportive role,” he said. “It really is a woman-centered theme.”

Gerringer said he fell in love with the play — and playwright Sarah Ruhl’s writing — the first time he read it. The Clean House was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2005. Ruhl won a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2006.

“It’s a risky sort of writing style,” he said of the juxtaposition of comedy with profound drama, “and she does it very, very well.”

Conflicting schedules — Actors’ Theatre is a community theatre run mostly by volunteers — and a flu bug made rehearsals challenging for the director, who said he is very proud of what he and his cast have accomplished.

“This is not what they call an ‘actor-proof’ play,” Gerringer said. “You’re weaving in comedy on top of drama and you have to have skilled actors who understand the playwright’s vision in order to really pull that off with any kind of dexterity.”

The cast’s work ethic and long hours rehearsing paid off with a good review in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

“The visceral experience of seeing live actors is a one-of-a-kind experience,” said the director, who’s been working with Actors’ Theatre since the 1980s. “There’s a magic that’s created when a play is performed well and everything is clicking that I don’t think can be duplicated by any other medium.”

Even so, getting people to go to live theater is a challenge.

“It’s a lot to ask someone to leave their Netflix Dvd or their cable box at home, or even to come to see live people performing instead of going to Cinema 9 or the Del Mar. It’s a completely different thing. Unfortunately, a minority of people come to live theater in this day and age,” Robinson said.

The Clean House runs through October 18 at Actors’ Theatre, 1001 Center Street, Santa Cruz. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $12.50 to $20 and can be purchased by calling (831) 425-7529.

Other shows in the Actors’ Theatre’s 25th anniversary season include the Eight Tens @ 8:00 ten-minute play festival (January 15 – February 14); Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy (February 19 – March 21) and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole (Opens May 7).