Footlight Players Performs 1955 Broadway Drama ‘Bus Stop’

CHARLESTON, SC – The Footlight Players will take to the stage later this month to perform “Bus Stop,” a 1955 play by playwright and novelist William Inge. The play is set in a diner about 25 miles west of Kansas City. It’s March 1955 and a freak snowstorm has forced a layover at a small town diner in the wee hours of the morning. Romantic relationships ensue among six of the travelers in this drama with splashes of romance and comedy.

Directed by Michael L. Locklair, “Bus Stop” opens Feb. 27 at the historic Footlight Players Theatre, 20 Queen St. in downtown Charleston. Shows are at 8 p.m. Feb. 27-28 and March 5-7, 12-14 with matinees at 3 p.m. March 8 and March 15.

Tickets are $30 for adults; $27 for seniors; $20 for students. Book tickets online at footlightplayers.net or call the box office at 843-722-4487.

Bus Stop opened on Broadway on March 2, 1955, and closed on April 21, 1956, running for a total of 478 performances. The play was nominated for four Tony Awards in 1956: Best Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play, Best Scenic Design and Best Director.

For Locklair, directing this production of “Bus Stop” is a dream come true.

“Four outstanding American playwrights that have always tugged at my heart: Eugene O’Neill, Author Miller, Tennessee Williams and William Inge. With this production of ‘Bus Stop,’ I can now proudly say that I have directed each one of these talents,” he said.

“William Inge has long been one of my favorites,” Locklair added. “His plays are all so character driven, complex, normal, funny, romantic, lonesome and poignant. He is an American classic.”

CAST

Michael Locklair (Director) received his MFA in acting from Florida State University. After working as a professional actor in theaters from Maine to Florida, he returned to Charleston where he helped create Charleston County School of the Arts. Serving first as the theater instructor, he eventually became the fine arts director for all arts areas at the school. Locklair has been seen as either a performer or director with Charleston Stage Company, Village Playhouse, Flowertown Players and The Footlight Players. This is the second time he has directed for The Footlight Players.

Pam Fuqua (Assistant Director) recently appeared as the Porter in “Twentieth Century” and was assistant director. She moved from Albany, N.Y., where she was the drama adviser and assistant director for Ravena, Coeymans, Selkirk High School Drama Club. She directed the “Wizard of Oz,” “Music Man,” “Grease” and “Seussical the Musical.”

Doug McGill (Virgil Blessing) was last seen on stage as Ned in “The Nance” at South of Broadway Theatre Company. In addition to previous shows at Footlight, he has also performed with the Village Repertory Co., most recently in “Spamalot” and with The College of Charleston Shakespeare Project.

Ernie Eliason (Will Masters) This is Eliason’s first show with The Footlight Players. A member of the Flowertown Players board of directors, Eliason has been Big Daddy in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Oscar in “The Odd Couple” and Ralphie’s dad in “A Christmas Story.”

Brian Hawkey (Bo Decker) was in the Footlight’s 2013 production of “Oklahoma!” His role in “Bus Stop” is his second production and first time in a lead role. Hawkey is a graduate of and former basketball player at the College of Charleston. He lives in Mount Pleasant and is employed by Boston Scientific Corp. as a medical device sales representative. He’s grateful to his 11-year-old daughter, Hayden, for helping him learn his lines.

Linwood Yarborough (Dr. Gerald Lyman) is an award-winning videographer and accomplished actor, having appeared on daytime soap operas, commercials, student and feature films. After graduation from The Citadel, he studied playwriting with the late Emmett Robinson, studied drama at the College of Charleston, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, West, in Pasadena, Calif., and attended film classes at Pasadena City College. In addition, he studied for two years with famed casting director Michael Shurtleff. Yarborough has won film festival awards for his productions at The Houston International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and Optimist International. His documentary of a mission trip “Haiti, A Return Call to Care” was broadcast on local television in South Carolina. He continues to film local productions and teaches television commercial audition workshops. This is his second appearance at The Footlight Players; recently playing the role of Carlino in “Wait Until Dark.”

Chris Dowling (Carl) studied theater in New York City and is a graduate of the University of Washington. He has appeared in more than 35 productions in Charleston, New York and Florida. This is his 15th show with The Footlight Players. He was most recently seen playing the conductor in The Footlight Players’ production of “Twentieth Century.” Dowling is retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and lives on James Island with his wife of 38 years, Flor.

Lizzie Mears (Cherie) is making her debut at The Footlight Players Theatre. Notable stage roles include Tia in “It’s Time to Bring Back Charlie,” Joan in “The Nance” and Pegeen in “The Playboy of the Western World.” Mears studied theater at the Fulton School of Liberal Arts on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She performed in two tours of Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival with The New Salisbury Players.

Barbara Pinker (Grace) is making her debut with The Footlight Players. She recently moved from Baltimore with her husband, Larry. Her past roles include Madam Arcati in “Blythe Spirit,” Clairee Belcher in “Steel Magnolias,” Fanny Church in “Painting Churches” as well as working with the “Church Street Daughters of the Late Unpleasantness Garden, Gun, and Gin Club.”

Brianne Wilson (Elma Duckworth) most recently hails from Chicago, but has lived all around the United States. Recently seen onstage at Footlight as Fanny Cranberry in “On the Verge,” other favorite roles include Viola in “Twelfth Night,” Mary Haines in “The Women,” Isabella in “Measure for Measure,” Hero in “Much Ado About Nothing,” Beth in “A Lie of the Mind,” Nichette Fondue in “Camille,” and Harper Pitt in “Angels in America Part I and II.” Wilson graduated with a BFA in acting in 2007 from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. While there, she trained with the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and studied Shakespeare in Performance at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

About The Footlight Players
The Footlight Players launched in 1931 with a series of one-act plays directed by Lt. Commander Charles Russell Price at the Charleston Navy yard. The series was such a success and drew such a following that The Footlight Players formally organized and incorporated in the fall of 1932. To this day, The Footlight Players continues to provide professional quality, affordable community theater for the Lowcountry at the historic Footlight Players Theatre, 20 Queen St. in Charleston. For more information, visit footlightplayers.net or call843-722-4487.