Charles Ross loves “Star Wars.” Even more than those people you see standing outside the theaters for days before the openings of the new films, dressed in costume and fighting with plastic light sabers. Ross created something much, much greater than any Chewbacca costume — he wrote, stars in and is currently performing a one-act hour-long play that combines the plots of all three original “Star Wars” movies.

Call it an act of love — or an act of pure insanity — but his Midwest debut comes hot off the heels of three successful years of engagements throughout Canada and Orlando, Fla. Ross’ “One-Man Star Wars Trilogy” begins its eight-week stint at the Nobel Fool Studio Theater, 16 W. Randolph in Chicago, on Wednesday, Nov. 5.

PLAY sat down to talk to Ross about the performance, his love of “Star Wars” and his inability to fully channel the force of Yoda.

PLAY: First, and most obviously — why?

Charles Ross: Well, it started back during my childhood, sitting in movie theaters or at home and watching the “Star Wars” movies literally hundreds of times. I think the official count is about 474 times. So my plan was to take that experience of my childhood and the importance the films have for me even now and making something positive out of it and trying to create a job for myself.

I really just did it for fun and really didn’t think that much would come of it, maybe at best I would have work for awhile, but I never expected it to kind of continue on and for people to be so interested.

PLAY: So how long has this job been going on?

Ross: My very first performance of the piece was in Turkey — which was kind of kooky but the audience seemed to respond very well. That’s where the real success of the show comes from — I kind of see myself as reminding people of the films: parts they liked, laughed at, cried … I’m sort of capitalizing upon a brilliant audience that Lucas has created.

PLAY: How far do you see this going?

Ross: Well, now it kind of has legs of it’s own. It’s so very inexpensive to produce. All I need is my black clothes and a CD player to play some of the songs before the performance. But everything else is live: no other actors, lighting tricks, special effects.

PLAY: Recreating your own special effects? I’m trying to get my head around that, and I know I might have to see it to believe it, but can you explain to me how you can possibly recreate the Death Star exploding?

Ross: Yeah, the special effects thing are tricky. Sometimes I get kids that are kind of lamed out because they have to ‘use their imagination’ a little bit to understand. I couldn’t very well be the Death Star exploding without people using their imagination … well, I guess I could, but it would only be a one-time deal. I see my job with the effects side of it as more to remind people of the effects and the space ships and everything.

PLAY: The performance is an hour long, so obviously some plot lines and characters must be left out. How do you decide what stays and what goes?

Ross: When I first wrote it, it was a heck of a lot longer than 58 minutes, because you want to add in everything. It’s like if you love all the roses in your garden which ones do you cut down?

I guess you sort of try to sacrifice the ones you deem to be less important so that you’re left with the ones that you sort of know are going to speak to everybody.

PLAY: Seeing as it’s a one man show, you have to play…well, everyone. Were some characters especially challenging to imitate, and how do you work around that?

Ross: It’s tough, you try to find the thing you can do well out of the characters, and capitalize on that. Admittedly, my Yoda — it lacks. But I’ve never been able to do Yoda. So I kind of go for the intonation in his lines, so if I can give a true impression of the lines he’s saying rather than a perfect impression of his voice I still think people can make the leap.

PLAY: What are some of your favorite scenes to do?

Ross: Some of my favorite stuff tends to be where it’s between two characters just having a conversation. Like Luke and Leia, Han and Leia, or Ben and Luke…it’s kind of about boiling down something that is so huge into human components.

PLAY: Finally we get to the trivia section of our interview. I cheated and took these off a “Star Wars” trivia web site:

Okay, from the first film: What is the name of the Mos Eisley Cantina?

Ross: Oh, man … in the first one? I don’t know.

PLAY: That’s ok, you have two more chances to redeem yourself. It’s Chalmun’s Cantina.

Second question, from the second film, in the beginning, Luke’s gunner is named…?

Ross: Dak

PLAY: Nice. Moving on to the end of the final film, according to the Emperor, Luke’s weakness is…?

Ross: His faith in his friends.

PLAY: …and the Emperor’s weakness, according to Luke?

Ross: Your, I mean his, overconfidence.

PLAY: So any plans for a one-man show of episodes 1 through 3?

Ross: It’s funny, I’ve had that question asked to me just about every single interview. I’m going to tentatively say no. This was not contrived to sort of cash in on the hype. It came from my experience from watching the films, my love as a child and even my appreciation and love as an adult to make the original films into my own piece.

The new ones, it’s not a question of whether I love them or hate them because I do like them. I know that they haven’t succeeded in some people’s minds, but I like them in the sense that they’re similar to what Lucas did with the first films — in that he created a brand new audience. And with the new film, he’s doing the same thing.

For me, they haven’t touched me, I think, in the way the originals did and I’m quite positive the way they’re affecting kids today. I guess they’re just more engaged by the new ones as opposed to the old ones.

I just think that the originals are always going to be the ones that effect us and will always be that experience that we sort of cherish and the new ones will be something that a new audience will cherish, and it’s not a matter of weighing which is better, its just finding the trilogy that appeals to you best and for me that would be the old ones.