Bus Stop is set in a cheery roadside diner in the middle of a blizzard.  All the roads are blocked, and the bus and its weary passengers become stranded overnight.

Cherie, a nightclub singer, belligerent cowboy Bo and his friend Virgil, and a drunken doctor are joined by the sheriff, the bus driver, a young waitress, and the owner of the diner, Grace. Waiting for the roads to be cleared, they devise entertainments while sharing hopes and dreams over coffee, donuts, and a little Shakespeare.

As a counterpoint to the main romantic plot between Bo and Cherie, the proprietor of the cafe and the bus driver at last find time to develop a friendship of their own, a middle-age scholar comes to terms with himself, and a young girl who works in the cafe gets her first taste of romance.

This powerful script was first performed on Broadway in 1955 and has seen thousands of performances on large and small stages across the globe in the latter half of the 20th Century.

Director: Lesley Gray Warren
When: Jan. 23 at 4pm, Jan. 24 at 6pm.  Callbacks will be held on Jan 25 at 6pm
Rehearsals: Begin around Feb. 6, 2017.  Specific dates and times will be determined after casting.
Performances: April 7-9, 2017
What to prepare: A one-minute dramatic or comedic contemporary monologue. The callbacks will be cold readings from the script.

For more information, contact Lesley Warren or Jeff Thompson at (205) 338-1974 or email lesley@pellcitycepa.com or pellcitycepa@gmail.com.

Cast

• Grace Hoylard – (female, 30-50) Owner of the diner, a “grass widow”. She is pretty in a fading, hard-bitten way. She has a passionate side to her nature, loving a good fight and the attentions of a good man.
• Elma Duckworth – (female, 13-18) An intelligent, but naive and impressionable high school girl. She is Grace’s waitress.
• Will Masters – (male, 30-60) The local sheriff. Tough as nails and brusque in manner, but goodhearted and a highly “moral” man with a sense of humor.
• Dr. Gerald Lyman – (male, 45-70) A college philosophy professor who is articulate and charming but cannot hold a position due to his own character flaws, including an obvious drinking problem.
• Cherie – (female, 17-25) A pretty young woman who comes from a difficult background, and has left her innocence far behind. She is an aspiring nightclub singer, but is struggling to achieve her dreams.
• Bo Decker – (male, 17-25) A brash young cowboy with boorish manners that hide a naïveté almost as profound as Elma’s. He has convinced himself that Cherie will be his bride, though Cherie wants nothing to do with him.
• Virgil Blessing – (male, 30-50) An older, wiser cowboy who has become a father figure to Bo as well as Bo’s head ranch hand.
• Carl – (male, 30-50) The bus driver and a regular at Grace’s diner.  He and Grace are obviously attracted to one another.

SPOTLIGHT is an all-ages community theater project by Jefferson State Community College The Center for Education and Performing Arts. This project has been made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and through partnerships with the Pell City and St. Clair County School Boards.