Source: Todd Holmberg, 785-532-6425, trholm@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Rosie Hoefling, 785-532-2535, media@k-state.edu

Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011

WILLIAM INGE'S 'BUS STOP' BRINGS SMALL-TOWN KANSAS TO MCCAIN AUDITORIUM

MANHATTAN -- The Broadway production of William Inge's "Bus Stop" is rolling into Kansas State University's McCain Auditorium as part of the McCain Performance Series.

The play will presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18, by the Montana Repertory Theatre. The group returns to McCain after performing "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" during the 2008-2009 season.

"Bus Stop" is about a busload of stranded passengers who wait out a snowstorm at a roadside diner in a rural Kansas town. The narrative follows several characters, including the nightclub chanteuse, Cherie, and Bo, the belligerent cowboy determined to take her home.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning native of Kansas, Inge wrote "Bus Stop" in 1955. The play, his only comedy, is one of his most popular.

"Inge is well-known for his characterizations of life in Midwestern small-town America," said Todd Holmberg, director of McCain Auditorium. "Everyone who sees the play will certainly identify with some aspect of the production. This play also ties in well as we celebrate life in Kansas as part of the state's sesquicentennial."

Tickets are on sale now, with prices starting at $14.50 for K-State students and $29 for the general public. Discounts for K-State faculty and staff, military, and children are also available. They can be purchased at the McCain Auditorium box office from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, or by calling 785-532-6428. More information is available online at http://www.k-state.edu/mccain.

A McCain Conversation featuring David Smit, professor of English at K-State, will precede the evening's performance at 6:30 p.m. in 204 McCain Auditorium. Inge spent most of his life wrestling with the demons aroused by his sexuality and his small-town upbringing. Smit will present a discussion of what "Bus Stop" reveals about Inge's character and issues of sexuality in the 1950s.