Mark Zeisler as painter Mark Rothko and JD Taylor as his assistant Ken in 'Red.'

Red, the color of anger and passion, was often the favorite choice of abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko.

It dominates the canvases he was commissioned to paint for New York’s Four Seasons restaurant in the late 1950s, and his struggle to create those works is the focus of the highly anticipated play Red, which begins previews Tuesday at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.

The two-character drama by John Logan (Hugo, Gladiator) focuses on dialogues and observations about the meaning of art between Rothko and his new assistant.

Directions, nearby dining, invite a friend

Red won the 2010 Tony Award, and deservedly so, according to Mark Zeisler, who will be playing Rothko here. "I don’t think I’m going overboard by saying that this is really one of the great roles written for somebody in this period of my life," he notes. "It’s just a great play."

As he began rehearsing the role, Zeisler found he had much in common with Rothko. "I think he’s a fiery guy who’s very opinionated. He has very particular views of life and how it should be. I identify with him and I have a great amount of respect for him."

Perhaps as difficult an acting challenge is the role of Ken, a fictional assistant to Rothko, who must learn to assert himself and stand up to the tempestuous artist. As JD Taylor, a recent graduate of New York University’s MFA acting program, puts it, "Because Rothko is so huge and Mark is such a passionate, amazing actor, it does make me – starting out my career – really fight and push to keep that relationship where it needs to be. More than a biography of Rothko, this is about the relationship between him and Ken."

"It’s really a play about a journey between two people," agrees Zeisler. "It’s very much surrogate father-son. It’s also mentor-student. Employer-employee. Two men that by happenstance are thrown together in life.

"Early on in the play, I say, ‘Consider, I am not your rabbi, I am not your father, I am not your shrink, I am not your friend, I am not your teacher. I am your employer. Understand?’ And yet he becomes all of those things throughout the course of the play. And I think they leave each other having changed each other’s lives."

Chances are that theatergoers will identify with each character at various points during Red. "In relation to Ken, the assistant, the audience is a bit in Rothko’s shoes," says director Lou Jacob, who is making his Maltz Jupiter debut, as are his two actors. "They make assumptions perhaps about this guy early on, and then he’s got to be able to cut loose and take over the play. It should be, ‘Wait, where did that come from?’ I did not know JD, but I had a good hunch about him as soon as he walked into the audition room."

Much of the play is heady talk about art, aspiration and ambition, but the evening is anything but static. "The play never stands still," says Zeisler. "It’s so well-written and the forward current is always there."

The most active sequence is when Rothko and Ken, working in tandem, furiously prime a huge canvas, covering it with blood-red paint. Although it seems very free-form, "It’s pretty tightly structured, choreographed," explains Jacob. "However, you’re dealing with a wild card, which is wet paint. So like the Rothko itself, there’s a structure that’s created and within that structure, it’s just two guys putting paint on a canvas."

While paint is the medium of Red, the play has plenty to say beyond the world of art. "What speaks to me, and what’s so poignant, is (Rothko’s) journey in the play. And his talk about the everlasting struggle to not compromise about the choices that you have to make to be creative and to be an artist," says Zeisler. "And I think that’s applicable not only to people who want to be artists, but in all areas of life. What you have to do to stay true to yourself."

Adds Taylor: "To me, what speaks most personally is the struggle of this young man who desperately wants something, is passionate about it, but doesn’t know exactly how to go about getting it. He wants to be an artist, he wants to have a family, he wants to be a son, he wants a role model. He wants them so badly and he finds Rothko," he said. "And in the play, Ken becomes his own artist, he becomes his own man, through this father figure, this artist-hero figure."

It is no coincidence that Red will be one of the most-performed new plays around the nation this season. "Red is a brilliant play about many things," says Jacob. "It’s a play about art certainly, but it’s a play about parents and children, a play about mentors and students, it’s a play about our past and our present and what we view as our future – whether it’s art, politics, history, what have you. It’s a play about making choices about how one lives one’s life, about what one deems important and valuable, what virtues to carry forward into the future."

RED: Tuesday through Feb. 26, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Tickets: $44-$62. Call (561) 575-2223