LAURINBURG — A play that originally cast the famous actress Marilyn Monroe in its film in 1956 is coming to St. Andrews University for the first time since it was presented in 1974.
St. Andrews theatre instructor Cinny Beggs will be directing the play “Bus Stop” by playwrite William Inge. The play is about a bus that stops at a small Kansas town street-corner diner during a snowstorm. The passengers on the bus have to stay at the diner for shelter and, while there, they meet with others in the restaurant and relationships start to form.
Beggs said Inge was with other playwrites during his time, writing about relationships and social problems — and they always worked out at the end.
“I always look for something that is going to have a nice array of characters, because that’s the fun part of acting, getting to become someone else,” she said.
Beggs added the play’s theme relates to the current decade.
“That’s what makes (the play) interesting, because no one knows each other, it’s just people on the bus,” she said.
There will be three performances during the weekend at the Morris Morgan Theatre — opening night is Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday has two performances, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $3 for students, cash only, at the door. No online tickets will be provided.
“I hope people come and see it because it’s a lot more fun when you have an audience,” Beggs said.
The performance will run for about 80 minutes with no intermission and three acts.
Beggs said she chose not to have an intermission because she believes that people start to get into the characters and they want to know what happens next.
Octavia Johnson is a fall semester intern from The University of N0rth Carolina at Pembroke.