Chapter 1

Driving by the Playhouse Community Theatre, I saw a large hand written sign that said AUDITION NOTICE.

Underneath the letters, it said: "The Big One"

'Looking for men age 20 to 30 and women age 18 to 30, for a new show written especially for the Playhouse Community Theatre.

There is one man and one woman in this show about what would happen if they were the only two people left for over a thousand miles after a nuclear bomb strike 78 miles from where they lived'.

"Today between 1PM and 4PM!"

I looked down at my watch and noticed it was 12:45 so I decided to stick around and see more about this. It had been a few years since I had done any acting and at 28, I'm on the edge of the range they're looking for.

I'm Michael Travis - 28, brown hair and eyes, 6ft tall exactly.

I was born and grew up in this town but left for college out of state, and now I'm back in town looking for work and maybe trying out for this play.

As it gets closer to 1PM people start to arrive. I guess the notice was in the paper or online, because by the time the Audition Committee shows up, there are close to 45 of us there.

If you've never done theatre before, there is one of three things that happen between people as they mingle before an audition:

They know each other but feel too nervous to say anything. They don't know anybody there so they just keep to themselves. Lastly, Those who walk up to anybody and start to strike up a conversation.

There are also the people who come in a group to the audition, and then talk a mile a minute, not necessarily aware that their incessant talking is bothering the hell out of everybody else.

I walked over to a rather pretty girl and said, "Hi! My name is Mike, have you done anything at this theatre before?"

She acknowledges that I spoke to her, but she appears to be very nervous or maybe high strung. She hesitantly says, "My name is Amy — nice to meet you Mike. I haven't acted since high school - my mom saw the notice in the paper and talked me into it."

After some more conversation, I found that she's 26 - brown eyes and hair, and went back to live with her widowed mother after college.

We picked up the forms to fill out and a copy of the scene that they wanted everyone to audition with, so I asked Amy if she'd like to audition with me. She said sure, and we walked to a spot and practiced the dialogue a couple of times through.

It read like one of those silly sci-fi movies made in the 50s, right after the nuclear threat of war began.

Amy is very good and reads with emotion. She seems very devil-may-care, and she's not so pretty that she could get the part.

Let me explain that? Acting at all levels from high school on is NOT about talent at least not usually. Sometimes it's attitude, often it's how old you look - not how old you are, short, tall, fat, slender, plain or pretty.

It's our turn to audition. After hearing us say our names they have us go through the scene. Suddenly, Amy gets this perfect amount of pissed off in her voice, and I picked up on it and we're really getting into it. The director says, "Thank you, very nice!" and we leave the stage together.

After everyone has tried out the director turns and says, "Don't anybody leave, yet! I want to see all the girls on up on stage left and all the boys up on stage right. I want to see how everybody looks together."

So, a boy comes out, and then a girl. The director shines a bright flashlight at them, for what purpose I can't tell. I arrange myself, so Amy and I will be together on stage for at least a moment, so he can see us under 'his flashlight'. After about an hour of this he announces, "Everybody can go except Amy Tolliver and Michael Travis! Thank you all very much auditions for Blithe Spirit are in four weeks come back if you want more rejection!"