Now and Then Audition Notice
Director - Sarah Tysinger
Director - Sarah Tysinger
Auditions for Now and Then will be held at The Uwharrie Players Clubhouse on Sunday, February 22, at 3:00pm and Monday, February 23 at 6:00pm. The Clubhouse is located at 546 E. Main Street in Albemarle, NC. Auditions will consist of cold reads from the script.
Now and Then will be produced at the Albemarle Neighborhood Theatre April 17-19 and 24-26, 2026.
Character Breakdown
Jamie - (late 20s-early 30s) Bartender and aspiring pianist. Attractive in a regular-guy way. Sincere, hardworking, very much in love with Abby.
Abby - (late 20s-early 30s) IHOP waitress and one-time English major. Funny, smart, and very much in love with Jamie.
Man - (mid 60s) A bit beaten down but good-natured. Easy to talk to, well spoken, sincere, and very intent on his mission tonight. Husband of 35 years to Woman. He is desperate.
Woman - (mid 60s or a bit younger) Strong, direct, loving, a little coarse at times. She is Man's wife of 35 years. No one knows her like he does and no one knows him like she. She and Man bicker but there is a bedrock of love there. They'd do anything for each other and no one can hurt either of them like the other one can.
Abby - (late 20s-early 30s) IHOP waitress and one-time English major. Funny, smart, and very much in love with Jamie.
Man - (mid 60s) A bit beaten down but good-natured. Easy to talk to, well spoken, sincere, and very intent on his mission tonight. Husband of 35 years to Woman. He is desperate.
Woman - (mid 60s or a bit younger) Strong, direct, loving, a little coarse at times. She is Man's wife of 35 years. No one knows her like he does and no one knows him like she. She and Man bicker but there is a bedrock of love there. They'd do anything for each other and no one can hurt either of them like the other one can.
Synopsis
A Man walks into Mulligan's Irish Bar in Chicago in 1981. Bartender Jamie is starting his nightly closing ritual as he waits for his girlfriend Abby, a waitress at the IHOP down the block. The Man is in a hurry, desperate for a drink and determined, so Jamie pours a scotch and soda with a twist - at the going rate of $1.25.
Once Abby arrives, the Man makes the couple a strange, escalating offer which ends this way: if they'll sit with him for one hour, talking and drinking, he'll pay them $1,000 - each. They bite. Jamie has been saving to take a break from the bar so he can focus on becoming a great jazz pianist. Abby wants to go back to college to study literature and writing. The Man's money will speed up the process for both, so Jamie fixes them drinks, then the Man launches into his storytelling, his questions and his agenda, sometimes with the help of a few rounds of Truth or Dare. The late arrival of a character called Woman adds more layers of complexity and emotion.
As the younger couple looks ahead to their future and the older one contemplates the past, this play explores the myriad decisions, the small one and the big ones, that forge the course of a life.
Hopes, regrets, dreams, loss, and love in its many manifestations all come into play, as well as that big, inevitable question: What if I choose this path instead of that one?
A Man walks into Mulligan's Irish Bar in Chicago in 1981. Bartender Jamie is starting his nightly closing ritual as he waits for his girlfriend Abby, a waitress at the IHOP down the block. The Man is in a hurry, desperate for a drink and determined, so Jamie pours a scotch and soda with a twist - at the going rate of $1.25.
Once Abby arrives, the Man makes the couple a strange, escalating offer which ends this way: if they'll sit with him for one hour, talking and drinking, he'll pay them $1,000 - each. They bite. Jamie has been saving to take a break from the bar so he can focus on becoming a great jazz pianist. Abby wants to go back to college to study literature and writing. The Man's money will speed up the process for both, so Jamie fixes them drinks, then the Man launches into his storytelling, his questions and his agenda, sometimes with the help of a few rounds of Truth or Dare. The late arrival of a character called Woman adds more layers of complexity and emotion.
As the younger couple looks ahead to their future and the older one contemplates the past, this play explores the myriad decisions, the small one and the big ones, that forge the course of a life.
Hopes, regrets, dreams, loss, and love in its many manifestations all come into play, as well as that big, inevitable question: What if I choose this path instead of that one?
