By Rita McInerney

Ten years after he received the rights to develop "Cotton Patch Gospel" for the stage, Tom Key is about to begin another ambitions venture. He will adapt "Lost in the Cosmos," a novel by Catholic author Walker Percy, for the theater.

"In 1980, we didn't think being Catholic was on the agenda," the popular Atlanta actor says. "Now I want the church to be in on everything I do."

Tom Key credits a good friend, Dr. William Sessions, a professor at Georgia State University, with helping him obtain the Percy book rights.

Dr. Sessions says he wrote about Key's desire to his old friend, Percy, in Covington, LA, early in May. Just two days before his death from cancer on May 10, Percy called his agent to tell him he wanted Tom Key to have rights to "Lost in the Cosmos."

Dr. Sessions, a poet and playwright who teaches creative writing and Renaissance literature at Georgia State, said it was "touching to me" that his old friend would make this gesture of friendship while dying. He describes "Cosmos" as a "witty look at modern conceptions of life," both "very serious and very light."

Key plans to stage the Percy work as a comic drama. He will play the omnipotent narrator in the cast of several actors. He wants to change the subtitle "The Last Self-Help Book," to "Our Last Self-Help Seminar." Several vignettes will be connected thematically. One will depict a spaceship journey to another planet whose inhabitants refuse to admit the Americans.

It's "a humbling experience," Key says, to have the chance to bring the Percy work to the stage. Percy and Milledgeville's Flannery O'Connor were the Catholic writers the Keys explored in their own religious search. And earlier, Key had written to Percy telling him about his own work and what Percy's writing had meant to them.

Work on the Percy book will have priority for Tom Key after the couple, their three sons, Simon, 13, Stephen, 10, and Charlie, 3, and the family dog and cat, move to New York once their home in Atlanta is sold.

That's the bad news for Atlanta where theater-goers have grown accustomed to top-notch acting when Tom Key is playing in a local show.

He is grateful for his Atlanta experience, both with the Alliance and other area theaters. He has "played five of the 10 roles I want to play. I've a foot in the door on movies and TV. I can make a living here but in 10 years, I would be basically at the same level I am today."

New York offers greater opportunities. "It's the closest to London in what actors can do in the theater, films and TV," and for him it's important to keep being challenged.

Beverly Key sees the move as a chance to enrich her painting. The Keys hope to find a home in the Hudson River Valley, an area favored by artists because of its magnificent scenery. It is also a not too difficult commute into New York City.

They will leave a friendly white brick two-story in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood. Inside the light-filled home, a brightly painted crucifix from El Salvador hangs on the wall by the door. Over the fireplace, a large painting grabs the eye.

A pope-like figure is depicted in the right foreground. To his left, the piano-player looks familiar. It's Tom Key in the role of Artie in John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves." It was painted by David Fraley for the lobby exhibit during the 1988 production at the Theater in the Square, Marietta.

In their search for faith, the Keys slowly discovered they "wanted to be connected with Christ, with Peter and Paul, with the pope," he said. In their quest they found many divisions in Protestant denominations, even in the Episcopal Church which they joined early in their marriage.

As artists, they appreciate the symbolism, the Catholic world view, Beverly Key acknowledges. "In Protestantism there is a basic mistrust of symbols."

In Catholicism, her husband adds, that world view has "a conservatism that has come down over the ages but also has the freedom to be fully human and to explore that in your art."

The steadfastness of the Catholic Church, while being open to growth, bolsters them in their relationships with other artists, Tom Key finds.

"We continually are working everyday with people with whom we disagree on a number of things, including abortion and sexual issues."

As artists, they can appreciate the importance the Church places on discipline and order within the Liturgy. Tom, comfortable with the strict necessity of learning his lines, believes "if an artist is to be free," he must accept such demands.

Beverly finds the same comparison with Catholic prayers. Once learned, she became free to put her own emotion into praying. This was a comfort while praying the rosary during her mother's illness and death.

It thrills both of them to know that Pope John Paul II is praying for them as artists. They learned this through reading in a recent issue of The Georgia Bulletin that his July prayer intention was for "intellectuals, scientists, artists and those in universities who work to bring the seed of the Gospel to every culture."

As Catholics, they feel better equipped "to explore all kinds of subjects" in their art. They have learned "to reverse their priorities, to place principles over personalities," as they see the church doing.

In their own Catholic community at Sacred Heart, both sense "an understanding" of who they are and what they are about as artists. They have gained bonding and security, freedom and joy through their Catholic faith.

They will be missed at Sacred Heart, Sister Valentina Sheridan, RSM, pastoral assistant, says. They were accepted from the start, "not for his celebrity. They're very faith-filled and just seemed like part of the community. They participate in everything we have. I hate to see them leave. I had looked forward to them becoming even more involved."

Simon and Stephen were altar servers, their proud parents point out.

For Tom Key, 40, a native of Brewton, AL, the journey to this fulfillment began as a teenager. "I would go into a Catholic church to pray. There was a presence in the empty church that gave me solace."

His wife, who grew up in Birmingham, had no such experience. She did have a good friend, however, who was Catholic.

She believes her development as an artist "goes hand in hand with becoming Catholic," and also with her having their third son. She took art classes which carrying Charlie and after his birth felt she had made a break-through, and gained more confidence in her own talent.

Pictures in their home verify her comment. Recent watercolors are painted in a bolder style with a vibrancy lacking in a pale landscape attempted earlier. She exhibits at an artists' coop at Lindbergh Plaza.

During their years of inquiry, they were fortunate to have as a close friend Dr. Deal Hudson, also a convert to Catholicism. He was there when they needed more information or wanted to know "What about this?" There was never, they point out, "any point when we had doubts."

Through Dr. Hudson they met Jean Farrell, director of religious education at All Saints parish in Dunwoody. She guided them during the period of instruction they shared with other Episcopalians joining the church and remains a good friend.

Tom Key now admits to "being fairly evangelical about the Catholic Church." He tells of taking a friend, a businessman in a mid-life crisis, to daily Mass at Sacred Heart. During lunch after Mass he sensed a new calmness in his friend.

He sees Flo Rothachre, his longtime agent, "as a prospect for the church." She has, he says, seen "Cotton Patch Gospel," his first stage hit, 11 times.

Key admits to a special fondness for "Cotton Patch Gospel" because "it gave a lot of joy to special people."

The lively musical, based on the life of Jesus and set in today's South, was adapted by Key from Clarence Jordan's "Cotton Patch Versions of Matthew and John." Musical score is by the late Harry Chapin.

Years before he and Beverly thought of joining the church, the actor found Catholics the best audience for "Cotton Patch Gospel." Unlike members of fundamentalist churches, they were not offended by liberties taken with the Bible message, could accept with laughter a Jesus in jeans with peanut butter smeared on his hands.

The Keys first lived in Atlanta from 1978 until 1980 when they moved to Connecticut while he was developing the musical. It enjoyed a six-month run at the Lambs Theater in New York City and drew a standing ovation after each performance.

New York reviews were good, Tom Key says, although the critics usually began by saying, "I never thought I would like this play, but..."

After New York the show enjoyed long runs in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles. Audiences outside the South, the actor found, seemed surprised at their enjoyment of the down-home humor, while southern audiences laughed in recognition of its engaging depiction of their culture.

The family returned to Atlanta in January, 1986, and Tom Key found the regional success his talent and versatility deserved. Good roles came along at the Alliance, he gave one-man presentations in churches, and began movie and television work.

Main stage roles at the Alliance include The Stage Manager in "Our Town," Dr. Pangloss in "Candide," Huey Long in "Southern Cross," Buffalo Bill in "Annie Get Your Gun."

Last year he moved Studio audiences with his poignant solo performance in Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory" after reprising "Cotton Patch Gospel" earlier in the year. He gave one-man dramatizations of "The Revelation of John" and C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" at area churches.

Now, on the road, they will take with them "what we knew we were getting in the Catholic Church, the wonderful consistency, the Eucharist and Liturgy which take precedence over everything else and are always the same in churches everywhere."