Endurance is the foremost skill that actor and script-writer Kevin Gabel is gleaning from the role he created for himself in the one-man show Undress Me.

Undress Me centers on Julian, a young bisexual man dealing with a recent break-up with his boyfriend, body image, and contemporary hook-up culture. Gabel originally conceived the script as a short film he intended to direct, but over time realized the piece would be better realized as a one-man stage show.

"...and by that time I really wanted to play this character so I decided I’d write it for myself," Gabel says. "...so I had a lot of time to think about his worldview, his desires, and his experiences. But, although I have all that inside information, it’s still a challenge to assemble everything into one person and make it interesting and dynamic to watch."

Once the artist created a workable draft, he and his director/dramaturge Ivan Henwood worked on shaping the show into what it is today and began rehearsals. Jonathan Kindzierski – a former Mr. Gay Winnipeg – stage manages the piece.

"I’ve never performed in a one-man show before, so it’s like going from running a relay to doing the whole marathon by yourself," he allegorizes.  "This isn’t a simple show to do emotionally, either; it’s going to be a roller coaster every night."

This is also the first show the actor has done which involves nudity.

"...and because of that, I’m learning a lot about my body, becoming more comfortable with it and learning more control over it, particularly for one rather provocative scene near the end of the play," he says.

Gabel began acting in high school and taking extra roles in movies, but only in the last five or six years has he really taken his career as thespian seriously. His first major role was in a play called I Dream of Jimmy, in which he played a gay teenager struggling to come out to his parents.

Since then he has performed in five shows at the Winnipeg Fringe in various genres, including the romantic comedy People Like You, the zombie comedy Brain Cravers, and the family drama Room at Both Ends.

However, in none of these shows was he alone on the stage. In Undress Me Gabel intends to discover how much an audience shapes a show.

"It’s just going to be me and them out there, and everything they do is going to affect me and make the show new and different every night," he says. "I can’t wait!"

Gabel hopes the show grants viewers the opportunity to reflect back on their past relationships: the people whom they’ve been taking for granted, and the work that must be done for the future, as difficult as that may be to determine.

"I can relate a lot to Julian in that we are both dealing with similar issues in a general sense (love, sex, ambition, body image), but he has certainly had a much rougher time of it than I have!" Gabel says. "...I hope that audiences are entertained; that they go on a journey with Julian and he captures their interest and imagination all the way to the end."