Two veteran actors with Alabama roots will return to their home state for the world premiere of a new play at the Gogue Performing Arts Center in Auburn.

“Alabama Boys,” starring Michael O’Neill and Thom Gossom Jr., is set for two performances at the Wotlosz Theatre, on Oct. 26-27 at 7:30 p.m. The autobiographical play, written by the actors, illuminates their parallel journey as children in Alabama during the civil rights movement, as students at Auburn University and as actors in Hollywood.

O’Neill, 71, a Montgomery native, and Gossom, 70, a Birmingham native, have been friends for 25 years, but O’Neill says the two never really crossed paths during their time at Auburn.

Gossom, who played football as an undergraduate, was the first Black athlete to graduate from Auburn University. He later earned a master’s degree in communication from the University of Montevallo, worked for a Birmingham TV station and became a public relations executive, actor and author. His acting credits include “In the Heat of the Night,” “NYPD Blue,” “Boston Legal,” “Fight Club,” “Son of the South” and more.

O’Neill, 71, was involved in student government at Auburn. After graduation, on the advice of actor Will Geer, O’Neill pursued an acting career in New York and Los Angeles. He became a successful character actor, with roles in movies such as “Seabiscuit,” “Transformers,” “Sea of Love” and “Dallas Buyers Club.” O’Neill also has appeared on a wealth of TV series: “The West Wing,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “Bates Motel,” “Extant,” “Rectify” and more.

Both men men struggled for acceptance in the entertainment world during their early years as actors — Gossom encountered racism; O’Neill faced Southern stereotypes; both dealt with Hollywood snobbery, industry dismissals and more — and these experiences form part of the fabric of the play.

“I think Thom’s story is really, really important,” O’Neill said during an interview with AL.com. “Part of my feeling about it was that if I can get his story out, then I’ve been of some service to the theater. And then I realized: I have a story, too.”

“Alabama Boys” includes monologues by the actors, conversations, reminiscences, music and more.

“It moves. It varies. There’s poetry in it; there’s humor,” O’Neill said.

Childhood experiences are important to the narrative, along with some painful memories about growing up in Alabama during the 1950s and early ‘60s.

“There’s a device in it with a marbles game, where we’re shooting marbles as children,” O’Neill said. “My mother calls me and says, ‘You can’t do that anymore. They have their own game.’ It was the start of segregation. How do you explain that to a child? And he had his experience, playing in gyms where they didn’t want him, schools where they didn’t want him there. We were boys growing up. As a boy, how do you make sense of all this?”

O’Neill, who lives in California, and Gossom, who lives in Florida, wrote the two-act play in tandem, “out of hours and hours of conversation,” O’Neill says. The actors have been shaping and rehearsing the work using online video technology, and have continued to refine it during in-person rehearsals at the theater in Auburn.

Tickets for “Alabama Boys” are $35 at the box office (334-844-8497) or via the Gogue website. Discounts are available for Auburn alumni, faculty and staff; Auburn students are eligible for free tickets. “Alabama Boys” is the first play produced and presented by the Gogue Center, according to the theater website.

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