April 26, 2017
East Texas Baptist University's Theatre Department, led by student director, junior Laramie Smith, told the story of strangers stranded at a small roadside diner outside of Kansas City, Missouri during a winter blizzard with their production of Bus Stop, a play by William Inge. The ensemble performed for four sold-out audiences April 20-23.
With the play set in 1955, the cast and crew faced the challenge of representing the perspectives of the time while simultaneously appealing to the values of a modern audience. They worked to portray their characters' experiences with relevance to create an enduring narrative.
Cherie (senior Katelyn Pope), a nightclub singer, is anxious about the wait, as Bo Decker (junior Judah Armour), a young cowboy, has kidnapped her. Bo aggressively and obliviously desires to marry Cherie and live with her at his ranch in Montana.
"However, to keep Bo from being an unlikeable character to a contemporary audience, we have worked to make him relatable by placing emphasis on his ignorance, childishness, naivet'e, and true inability to relate to women," Director Laramie Smith said. "We also wanted to emphasize his complete lack of tact, everyday manners, and gentleness as a result of having limited social interaction outside the confines of his ranch."
The contrasting qualities of the characters reveal the irony of their situation. Cherie, an independent young woman, fears loneliness. Bo, desperate for Cherie, pushes her away with his pursuit. The internal tension of the characters proved difficult to depict, according to the cast. "The biggest challenge is trying to find a balance with the character," Armour confessed. "Another challenge is the amount of energy that is required to play a character like this. Bo is a very energetic character. You have to be committed to the energy, or else you lose that special quality about his character."
As the night draws on, other relationships begin to form. The owner of the diner, Grace Hoylard (Samantha Pettigrew) and the bus driver Carl (Tyler Cureton) begin the evening as friends and develop into a romance. Dr. Gerald Lyman (sophomore, Levi Pell), a middle-age scholar, comes to terms with his failures, while a young waitress (freshman Emory Lambert) gets her first taste of romance.
The overarching theme of the narrative is loneliness; all of the characters are connected by this shared experience.
"Many of the characters' concerns (and, perhaps, their good judgment) melt when they see the potential for love or companionship," Smith said. "These moments of hope drive the characters' actions, creating moments of touching vulnerability and awkward humor. The fear of being alone is arguably a timeless and universal theme that any audience can relate to."
The theme of loneliness not only connects the characters to one another, but also the story to the audience. As the viewers relate to the story, they engage with its message. The cast expressed their hope of the audience's involvement.
"I want the audience to leave inspired by the life lessons Bus Stop highlights," Pope shared. "I want [the audience] to feel optimistic about life," Armour said, "Throughout the play, they get to meet some unique people. The audience learns about their lives, sees what hardships they have, and watches them become a different person from the beginning."
This was the final play for ETBU's Theatre Department this season. This year students, faculty, and community members entertained audiences with adaptions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, These Shining Lives, Fiddler on the Roof, and Bus Stop.
"It's very important to us as a department to explore plays by award-winning authors whose character journeys transcend time," ETBU Theatre Arts Chair Traci Ledford said. "It exposes our students to universal themes, historic research, and strong literature. As a result, they become better directors, designers, performers, and technicians."