“Shooting Star,” a romantic comedy by Steven Dietz, opens at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria on Friday.

The show which opens the 2024 season at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria on Friday comes with an agenda of “what ifs.”

“Shooting Star,” a romantic comedy written by prolific dramatist Steven Dietz, is directed by Danyelle Tinker. The show opens Friday and runs three weekends.

It features two characters who were lovers during their college years in the 1970s who meet by chance at a snowed-in airport terminal. Flight delays give the two characters an opportunity to review their lives and their differing recollections of why they broke up.

Tinker, the theater’s executive artistic director, said the play fits this year’s “growing pains” theme. “All the shows have some sort of theme of growth or overcoming challenges of some sort or of personal transformation,” she said. “It’s a nontraditional love story — just in time for Valentine’s Day. It’s a wonderful tug at our heartstrings.”

‘Evolved’The two-person cast features Gigi Chadwick and Michael Murdoch, whose interactions take place on an airport terminal set designed by Julianne Bodner.

Chadwick has appeared in productions for the Coaster Theatre and Ten Fifteen, in September as Lady Macbeth and earlier in another two-person play, “The Interview,” which earned regional American Association of Community Theatre awards.

She plays Elena, a free spirit during her college years who has never married. She clings to some hippy values while making compromises to modernity, like reading Cosmopolitan magazine and abandoning vegetarianism for burgers.

“She is still living that bohemian life, but she’s full of contradictions,” Chadwick said. “She’s evolved into modern things that she embraces.”

Murdoch has theater arts and history degrees from the University of Oregon. He appeared in the Coaster Theatre’s comedy “Gramercy Ghost” in 2022. His character, Reed, has evolved into a conservative businessman who has a wife and child.

The director, Tinker, noted that he offers a puzzle. “Reed, we know, has made compromises at some point in his adult life, and went away from the college hippy life. But was that really ever him to begin with?” she asked.

The play delights Murdoch. “What I enjoy about the text is that there’s reality throughout — everyone should be able to glean a piece of themselves from the story, be it directly or even remotely,” he said. “The characters frame the true struggles of dreams and life and all of the in-between.”

The title is inspired by a Bob Dylan song which includes the lyric, “Guess it’s too late to say the things to you that you needed to hear me say.”

The couple appeared to be soulmates in their twenties, but their recollections about how, why and when they broke up differ. “The conversation is so relatable,” said Chadwick. “We each have a version in our head about our shared experiences.

“Elena has been envisioning this moment for 25 years, so to her, this is an opportunity. She is excited about this. Reed is reluctant to visit the past, but things slowly get resolved.”

‘Lovely’Dietz, who has contributed to the Seattle theater scene, has written plays that draw on references to “Dracula,” Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov and “Sherlock Holmes.” Last year, a movie version of “Shooting Star,” called “What Happens Later” starred Meg Ryan and David Duchovny.

The Astoria actors and director admire the 2008 play for the writer’s balancing act. “It is heartwarming and heartbreaking, he weaves it all in,” Chadwick said.

Tinker agreed. “There are elements of this show that will touch a nerve in everybody,” she said. “It is a really lovely piece.”

‘Shooting Star’

‘Shooting Star’

A romantic comedy written by Steven Dietz and directed by Danyelle Tinker

Ten Fifteen Theater, 1015 Commercial St., Astoria

7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with additional runs at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3:30 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 17

Tickets are available online are $25, as are tickets to other season performances

www.thetenfifteentheater.com