If you were to walk through the second floor of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Hammond Mansion, you'd see above each office door small posted signs that read "Robert Redford slept here," "Michael Douglas slept here" and "Danny DeVito slept here." And above one of those doors, it reads "Michael Tucker & Jill Eikenberry slept here" — the married actors who are best known for their leading roles as lovers Ann Kelsey and Stuart Markowitz in the late-1980s television series "L.A. Law."

They were first at the O'Neill during the summers of 1982 and 1983, acting in the center's National Playwrights Conference. In 1982, they were in a cast along with Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates in Phil Penningroth's "Ghost Dancing."

This year, Tucker and Eikenberry have returned to the O'Neill. But now Tucker is here as a writer.

His play "Assisted Living" was one of the eight out of 1,400 scripts submitted that were selected for this year's National Playwrights Conference. And, naturally, by his side is Eikenberry, who will be acting in the play.

"Being back at the O'Neill for this process has truly been fascinating," Tucker says. "This is where I originally learned how to act and learned here that getting your eyes off yourself is the best thing for your acting."

Transitioning from actor to writer happened about 25 years ago, he says. After he had spent nearly his entire life as an actor, Tucker decided that he wanted to write fiction. It was only recently, however, when Tucker was in the beginning stages of writing his fourth book, that he realized that it would be better suited as a play.

"That's when I started writing plays," he says.

"Assisted Living," which is Tucker's second play, is a story about three retirement-aged couples who are best friends. After gathering together at a farm in upstate New York to celebrate the birthdays of the three husbands, the group starts to wonder whether they should all live together.

Their bonds are tested, though, when it is discovered that one of the characters, Jer (the husband of Sunny, who is played by Eikenberry), has been having an affair with a woman outside of the group. 

Since Tucker and Eikenberry were last seen at the O'Neill in '83, they have had long and illustrious acting careers and a dedicated marriage. It wasn't until after they reached the pinnacle of their careers and had devoted their lives to raising their two children that they decided to devote that same passion into their own relationship. That decision brought them around the world in an ongoing effort to learn about intimacy, sexuality and communication, and it eventually brought them to their own cottage in the hills of Umbria, Italy, a small village close to Tuscany.

These experiences and life-themes of marriage, dedication, honesty and intimacy, which have shaped the couple's life together, have also come through to shape Tucker's play.

"Much of the story is about intimacy and the yearning for it and the fear of it. And it's not just intimacy with another person or other people, but I explore what it means to have an intimate relationship with yourself and to know that honestly," he says.

Exploring that same sentiment, Tucker admits, has become a major point in enabling complete intimacy with his wife, for example.

"The idea of relationship is a central part, if not the most important part, of my life. And in my story, such as it has been in life, all of these characters are confronting perhaps the last chapter of their lives and are forced to ask themselves, 'Do you want to get straight with yourself before you die, or do you want to keep telling yourself lies?' The play is exploring this self-exploration and the urgency of it," Tucker, 72, says.

He also says he has based a lot of this story off his own interests, including his fascination with "what happened in the old days, when entire families used to live together on one property before WWII. There would always be an outlet for each one of the family members to talk to. Then, something called the G.I. Bill happened and changed the entire family dynamic.

"This story is also about exploring that. It's about going back to a group of people you are thick as thieves with and having outlets and having people to talk to... If you can talk things out with people, then you can get to know yourself better."

And while Tucker says that the plot is completely fictional, he does admit that the beginnings of the story arose from experiences that he had while living in Italy.

It was 14 years ago, he says, that he and Eikenberry decided to buy their small cottage in the hills of Umbria. As it turned out, the area also happened to be a second home of sorts for dozens of other expatriate creatives, with whom the couple made new friends, specifically two couples also from New York.

"We were best friends and had been for years," Tucker says. "It wasn't until one night when we were out celebrating at a local sagra (a small village festival), that we started to talk about the possibility of all living together in a borgo (a very small Italian village). The idea was that we could grow old together and help each other instead of one by one being placed into assisted living homes."

Since June 28, Tucker has spent nearly a month writing and developing his play at the O'Neill. The time at the theater, he says, has been fascinating and a learning process.

"Everyone has a different process. Some people rewrite everything. Some people don't rewrite at all. Every writer is different, and every one of these plays is completely different. You can't compare them.

"I came here thinking that my play was pretty much finished, and some major changes have happened since, and I'm actually very happy with them," Tucker says. "For example, the other night, it was 4 in the morning and I couldn't sleep. I wasn't upset or worried. I was fine with it, and so I just lie there in bed, and at some point, these two thoughts came to me and ended up being enormously important to the play. Later, someone said to me that I was giving birth to new ideas. I guess that's just the magic of being here."

If you go

What: "Assisted Living"

When: 7:15 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Where: The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, 305 Great Neck Road, Waterford

Tickets: $30

Call: (860) 443-1238

Did you know?

When Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry performed in the play "Ghost Dancing" in 1982 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, one of their co-stars was Dominic Chianese. He went on to play Corrado "Junior" Soprano in "The Sopranos" — and he is starring in Tucker's "Assisted Living" during its staged readings at the O'Neill this weekend.