Actor Ryan Jamaal Swain tackles HIV — and improv — in ‘One in Two’

Ryan Jamaal Swain loves a challenge. To play the competitive Damon on FX's Emmy-winning drama series "Pose," the actor immersed himself in the study of voguing to capture the vibrancy of New York's underground LGBTQ ballroom scene and the raw emotions of how that community had been ravaged by the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.

And when Mosaic Theater offered him a role in its production of "One in Two" — whose title refers to the statistic that one of every two gay or bisexual Black men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime — he also did not hesitate.

"My charge as an artist is to be on the front lines of social-change vessels," Swain says by phone. "That's as deep and as integral as me being able to breathe."

To kick off Pride Month, the Howard University alum is making his D.C. stage debut in the interactive play inspired by playwright Donja R. Love's own diagnosis. Swain is joined by local actors Michael Kevin Darnall and Justin Weaks (both of whom appeared in Arena Stage's recent "Angels in America") playing queer men sitting in a waiting room — and taking direction from the audience as to what their characters’ storylines will be. The ensemble prepared for their roles in multiple ways, exploring not just pain but humor.

"It could be your worst nightmare or your most exciting, expansive process, depending on your crafting and your preparation," says Swain, who notes that he has positioned himself to be at the whim of a live audience. "I’m an actor that believes that you shop and morph, honey. Shop and morph. I’m relearning so much about my process being in this room because I have two other phenomenal actors that think about it a different way."

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Q: Since you and your castmates have to prepare for the same roles, how do you not allow their interpretations to inform your own so you don't perform the same way?

A: The physical composite and the physical score of who we are individually is very different. We kind of represent a polylith of the Black experience from color, from creed, from regionality, from religion, etc. I don't believe in processes being not collaborative. At the end of the day, me being able to see someone do something a bit different excites me as a player, as an artist, as an actor, because it's like, "Oh, I never even thought about that." There is a bit of collaboration in the crafting, which I’ve never done. It's always been like, I go into my laboratory and tap in on how I’m crafting this person. But because we have to have our heads on a swivel, there is a similarity or a sensitivity to our crafting having to be synergistic.

Q: "One in Two" deals with very serious subject matter, but what is the tone of this play?

A: We always find a space to laugh. That's our quickest gateway into easing the conversation, easing the story, easing the moments where we have to have real, deep conversations. So, although it might be very serious, it's a bunch of fun. And that might sound kind of cavalier, but it's fun because as Black and Brown people, we know how to show up in joy and in some sense of resistance and perseverance with a smile on our face and a laugh in our heart and a joy in our spirit and a pep in our step.

Q: "Pose" also featured characters impacted by HIV and AIDS. Does it take an emotional toll to revisit it?

A: I’m not going to lie to you and say that it's not tough. The type of work that I’ve been part of really has deep, deep, deep traumatic moments in it and deep grieving and deep mourning. So there's a bit of me that is like, "Girl, do we really have to keep doing this?" When people are still hurting, then it is my opportunity and responsibility to tell stories that reflect the time. Although I can live a life where I feel comfortable, expressive and very vibrant in my own identity and my own idiosyncrasies, there [are] so many people that have yet to get to that part of their rainbow.

Q: How did Washington shape you as an artist?

A: I came from Birmingham, Alabama, and I was an overachiever. I was the golden child [who would] go above and beyond to have some semblance of recognition. D.C. really gave me the opportunity to ask and be more curious about who I am as a person. I went to a performing arts high school where it was only 30 percent Black. Coming to D.C. and coming to Howard specifically, everybody is Black and everybody is an overachiever. So when I came here, it was like, "Oh, wait, I’m not just the only one." Now I really have to do some deep digging at what makes me unique, what makes me special beyond just my race. What does it mean to be incubated in a space where you have to really interrogate and deepen your relationship with yourself? That can be a scary one.

Q: What did that digging reveal?

A: What D.C. has done for me, and what it continues to do for me, is bring me back to asking myself, "Who am I?" It's a very powerful, revealing, transformative moment because it asks you to meet yourself in all your varied-ness. That's what D.C. always asks me: How do you get there? How do you move in that direction of getting back to truly freedom dreaming and dreaming freely as a Black person? And beyond your circumstances, how do you show up in joy? How do you see the hopefulness of your own station? That's what D.C. has given me. It always does that. It fills my cup.

Q: What do you want audiences to learn from "One in Two"?

A: Be comfortable living your truth no matter what it looks like. And also for you to expand your purview of everybody else's truth around you. To be able to feel and to have compassion and empathy for people beyond your own understanding and to show up for your life. Keep showing up for you. That means in spite of fear, in spite of not knowing what the next step is, having this radical, radical, radical vigor to live, to love and to be loved. To allow love to find you. Showing up for your life is giving yourself the permission to give yourself everything you deserve.

Mosaic Theater Company, Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE, 202-399-7993, ext. 501. mosaictheater.org.

Dates: Through June 25

Prices: $29-$64.