He walks on and off the stage, ensuring every movement will be clean, smooth and real. He moves from seat to seat, examining the set and envisioning the play from every angle to ensure everyone will be able to experience the heartbeat of the play “Santos & Santos.”

Wearing his brown, woven-leaf director?s hat, Manuel Pickett, Sacramento State professor of Theatre Arts and director of the play, weaves together every detail of the production for the play?s debut March 7 at the Playwrights? Theatre, in conjunction with El Teatro Espejo.

“Santos & Santos,” a comedic tragedy written in English and Spanish, is a complicated play about three brothers, Hispanics from South Texas, who become successful lawyers. Their success and power lead them astray as they combine greed with their accomplishments.

Octavio Solis, the playwright, writes scenes within the scenes in the play. The play starts at one point, and suddenly it?s a new day, week, and then ends up almost a year later. Time changes frequently and quickly.

“The way the set works is a real roller coaster ride,” said Joseph Ramos, a Sac State student who plays attorney Mike Santos. “I just walk a lot [on stage] to get a sense of the stage and look around a lot to absorb everything.”

The set symbolically represents infinity, like a roller coaster going up and down in society. While rehearsing, Ramos pretends there is an audience watching this roller coaster. To blend into his role as a lawyer, he pretends that he is presenting a deposition in a courtroom.

“You have to put yourself in a mind frame that you hold peoples? lives in your hands,” Ramos said.

Ramos spends about 20 hours a week rehearsing, researching and watching movies to bring life to his character. Focusing on how Johnny Depp?s character sees something in the movie “Blow,” Ramos aims to achieve his own results.

“I really want people to think that I actually see what I am seeing,” Ramos said.

The roles require the actors to be focused and calm. While preparing for the role, the actors envision someone in their mind to connect with the character they play. However, when they are on stage, the actors allow themselves to fall into their characters naturally.

“In most part when you work, it just got to be you,” said Jeremy Oase, a Sac State student who plays Casper Willis, a professional hitman. “You just have to let yourself do it. You have to let yourself make those decisions and go out there.”

The artistic and presentational style of the play requires very little scenery. The play moves from scene to scene without any definite scene breaks. Pickett selected “Santos & Santos” because of that style, despite its challenges.

“Being able to transition from one scene to the next and to carry the emotion is difficult,” Pickett said.

Keeping the audience focused, the play structured from one situation to the next and to reach the climax at the appropriate time is very complicated, he explained.

“This play has many climaxes,” Pickett said. “The climax drops, then comes back up and then drops, and comes back up and then it?s gone.”

Pickett analyzed each of the 13 characters in the play for six to nine hours. First a good sense of the characters was established, then the play was analyzed to every little detail. Lines are still not memorized.

“We try to develop a heartbeat [first],” says Pickett. “Its got to feel and its got to take the audience where you want to take them. The heartbeat of the play is in the inner conscience of the character,” said Pickett. “What is a person thinking and really feeling?”

“Santos & Santos” runs through March 17. Tickets are $12 general and $7 for students, alumni and seniors, and are available at the Sac State Ticket Office at (916) 278-4323 or at Tickets.com at (916) 766-2277.

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