The outstanding performers of Actors Inc. last night raised the figurative curtain on Jack Neary’s funny and moving play “The Porch” at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center. Set in a place like Lowell’s Sacred Heart neighborhood in 2004, the play gives voice to the people whom we shop alongside at Market Basket and see at the 4 o’clock Mass if church-going, the people who work hard, raise kids, save fifty bucks to throw away at Foxwoods, follow the Sox, and who try to make sense of what’s in the daily paper and nightly news. With humor, insight into human frailty, and a compassion for people trying to do the right thing, the troupe uses the playwright’s words and in this case his direction to bring alive a 90-minute tour up and down life’s roller coaster. As Sinatra sings in the opening scene, “That’s life.”

For tickets to the dinner-theatre production tonight and Saturday, call 978-984-3151 or visit www.actorsincorporated.com The play is presented by the UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas. Jack Neary is an alumnus of UMass Lowell.