Rebecca French in CSC Theatre Production

2012 Apr 5

Rebecca French of Alliance, Neb., is among the cast and crew of the Chadron State College theatre program's upcoming production of "Bus Stop," a romantic tale of a young cowboy's cross-country pursuit of a night club singer.

French, a senior studying secondary language arts education, will play the role of Elma the waitress and assisting with costume design and construction. This is her sixth production at CSC. She also was involved in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Once Upon a Mattress," "Dead Man's Cell Phone," "How I Learned to Drive" and "An Adult Evening with Shel Silverstein." She is a 2009 graduate of Alliance High School. Her parents are Darwin and Diana French of Alliance.

The production runs Thursday through Saturday, April 19-21, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 22, at 2 p.m. in the Memorial Hall Auditorium.

"Bus Stop," written by William Inge and popularized on Broadway and in a movie featuring Marilyn Monroe, tells the story of Bo Decker and Cherie the chanteuse.

Decker follows Cherie across the Great Plains in an effort to get her to marry him and accompany him back to his Montana ranch. Cherie wants no part of it and enlists the protection of the local sheriff. The story begins in 1955 when a Kansas blizzard prompts the bus driver and all his passengers to spend the night at Grace's Diner.

"Audiences will immediately recognize all of these beautifully drawn characters, and quickly find a lot of themselves in the characters' values, passions, pursuits and their uniquely Midwestern acceptance of life's joys and inevitabilities," said Roger Mays, CSC director of theatre.

Inge, a native of Independence, Kan., became known as the "Playwright of the Midwest" before his death at age 60 in 1973. Many of his works involved stories of small-town life and were set in the U.S. heartland. Mays said many regard him to be one of the best American playwrights of the 20th century.

Tickets may be obtained by contacting the CSC box office at 308-432-6207 or boxoffice@csc.edu. They also will be sold at the door if available.