Be prepared. In Mistakes Were Made there will be silent parts. That's because for the entire 90 minutes of the comedy opening at Stages Repertory Theatre next Friday, actor David Matranga is alone onstage; his main prop: a telephone he clings to like a life raft.

We'll hear his side of the conversations, but not the other as he paces the floor in an office building in New York City.

Matranga plays Felix Artifex, a producer wrapped up in working a deal involving a Hollywood star, a Broadway playwright and a problem with a truckload of sheep. He talks to other people by phone, but we never meet them and we're left to guess (probably pretty accurately) about what's being said to him by just hearing him talk and taking in his body language.

Director John Moletress is making his debut at Stages tackling the comedy by Craig Wright (think the TV show Six Feet Under). He says this play is "highly theatrical," meaning that the audience will always know it's in the theater -- as in when Denise, the koi fish puppet, "takes on a human element in a way."

Matranga, who says his personal favorite of shows he's been in at Stages was Man From Nebraska, where he played the sculptor boyfriend Harry, applauds the theater as a "real creative home for me."

Unlike other one-person shows, Matranga says he not only has to know his own character but "figure out who all these other people are on the other end of the line. This guy is trying so hard to make something happen." Something most of us can relate to.

Mistakes Were Made runs January 27 through February 19 at Stages Repertory Theatre, 3201 Allen Parkway. For information, call 713-527-0123 or visit www.stagestheatre.com.