Tomorrow's a big day for As the World Turns' Luke and Noah

As you may know, we've been covering As the World Turns and its gay teen Luke Snyder (played with amazing subtlety by Van Hansis). Of late, Luke has been trying to deal with his crush on co-worker Noah (Jake Silbermann) who appears to be straight, having started a relationship with Luke's friend, Maddie (Alexandra Chando). Maddie and Noah quickly bonded over a love of classic movies, while Luke struggled not to let himself develop feelings for a straight guy who wouldn't return those affections.

The last time we checked in, Noah was there for Maddie when her imprisoned boyfriend broke up with her, prompting the two of them to have sex -- and to be later discovered in bed together by Luke. He took the discovery badly leaving Noah to wonder if Luke was interested in Maddie. Luke corrected that mistaken assumption by coming out to Noah.

Since then, Luke has been struggling with his feelings while watching Noah and Maddie's relationship grow. The three have been working together on "Invisible Girl" a video series meant to be distributed on cell phones for local TV station WOAK. Luke is writing the series, the story of a heartbroken woman who has to regularly interact the object of her affection, clearly channeling his own anguish into the drama.

*-*-* SPOILER ALERT *-*-*

Tomorrow Luke and Noah's storyline takes another big step as, according to the show's preview page, "Luke and Noah have a close moment as Luke shares his true feelings."

Throughout his time on As the World Turns, Van Hansis has been putting together some very impressive performances. He shows a talent for displaying several conflicting emotions at once by adding layers of depth to a scene. Whenever I listen to viewers discuss As the World Turns, a major complaint is how little we see of Luke. While some of that comes from concern that the show may loose their nerve over the gay storyline, I think Hansis' performances fuels that frustration.

He elevates every scene he's in and As the World Turns could benefit with more screen time for Luke, even if he's only hanging out with either of his grandmothers. (By the way, am I the only longtime ATWT fan who longs to see Luke meet his other grandmother Iva?) I can't wait to see what he does with this material.

After the jump check out a couple of recent clips from As the World Turns. In the first, Luke, Noah and Maddie work on "Invisible Girl". Hansis really is quite incredible in his interaction with Noah; you can really see how happy it makes him to be around Noah, even as it hurts to an equal degree.

The second clip has Luke talking with his brother, Aaron, who is frustrated with his girlfriend. There's a great moment where Luke pauses slightly in talking about his own loneliness. Gay viewers will probably recognize that pause as that moment when your brain re-writes what you're about to say to take out the gender-specific pronouns.