It can be a dodgy sort of role — playing a dog, particularly when the playwright taking you for a walk is A.R. Gurney.

Yes, Gurney’s “Sylvia” is a comedy. But Gurney is amusing, not slapstick. He’s clever but not a caricaturist — even though he is known for depicting, humorously, but also often wistfully, the lives of WASPS.

On the other hand, Sylvia is a dog. Be careful, however. She speaks and doesn’t go around lifting her paws up. She’s dressed like a woman, albeit, perhaps, with pink bows over her ears, but not dressed up like a dog.

“It’s definitely challenging. It’s walking that fine line between the dog and the woman,” said Ellen Elsasser, who plays Sylvia in the upcoming Pilgrim Soul Productions presentation of the play at the Singh Performance Center in Whitin Mill, 60 Douglas Road, Whitinsville.

“Sylvia,” which opens Sept. 11, also stars Todd Darling, Betty Kristan and Erik Johnsen, and is directed by Pilgrim Soul’s founder and artistic director, Matthew J. Carr.

In the play, Greg, middle-aged and dissatisfied, meets a stray dog (Sylvia) in a park and takes her home to his Upper West Side Manhattan apartment. Instantly, Sylvia offers unconditional love. His wife doesn’t feel the same way for Sylvia. The wife wants Sylvia out.

Elsasser said she has to mesh the woman in her character with the dog so that “it doesn’t come out as a caricature or cartoonish.” To that end, she’s more than willing to follow the director’s lead. “I put a lot of trust in Matt as the director … I need to trust Matt’s direction as far as we go, and I do trust him 100 percent.”

Carr turned the praise back on Elsasser and the rest of the cast.

“Our biggest challenge in working together on ‘Sylvia’ was to play the ambiguities inherent in Gurney’s script in an engagingly comic yet poignant manner,” he said.

“Gurney intentionally blurs the line between the animal and the human, inviting the audience to confront ambiguity and to filter it through their own set of values and mores to arrive at their own assessment of ‘what love is all about.’ Ellen, and the rest of a fine ensemble walk that line with a perfect mix of humor and pathos.”

Elsasser has something else she can utilize to guide her.

“I am a dog person myself,” she said. “I have had dogs my entire life. People who have dogs know that each dog has a very specific personality.”

Elsasser and her husband Bob and their two sons are the proud owners of a Jack Russell terrier named Harpo. Harpo’s a she. The family lives in Marlboro.

“I do find myself watching her (Harpo), and I do find myself mimicking her reactions (on the stage),” Elsasser said.

On the human side of the equation, the play and the Greg-Sylvia relationship can be seen as a metaphor for people in mid-life seeking to transform their lives, Elsasser said.

Speaking of which, she made a transformation of her own after her sons had grown to a certain age. Or rather, a restoration. Active in theater earlier in her life, she had taken a 15-year hiatus to raise her children. Then she returned to the stage.

Elsasser, who works at Stratus Technology in Maynard, has been seen with Stageloft Repertory Theater, and this is her fourth show with Pilgrim Soul.

The first show she was in after resuming acting was “Lady on the Rocks,” a message play about alcoholism produced by Theatre Six in Shrewsbury. Elsasser played the lady in question. Getting back on the stage was scary, Elsasser acknowledged. “Then I got the bug again.”

“She is an amazing talent who brings boundless energy and enthusiasm to every role she plays,” Carr said. “She imbues A. R. Gurney’s street-wise mutt with just the right mix of mischief and mystery.”

“Sylvia” will be performed at 8 p.m. Sept. 11, 12, 18 and 19, and 2 p.m. Sept. 20. Tickets are $15. For reservations, call (508) 752-0224 or e-mail tom.saupe@alternativesnet.org or mattcarr@charter.net.