William Inge's classic “Bus Stop” is off an running to open a new season at Theatre 98.  The show is about how people connect to each other, sometimes in the strangest ways, and how those connections can blossom into love. And about how sometimes they blossom into a quick trip together to an upstairs apartment, but that brings its own kind of fulfillment.

Shows will be held Feb. 27-March 2 at 8 p.m. and March 3 at 2:30 p.m.. feature a beguiling slice of Americana that premiered on Broadway in 1955.

Passengers on a long-distance bus are stranded by a snow storm in a corner café in a small, Kansas town. Over the course of the night they spend there, we learn their stories: the young cowboy, Bo, has kidnapped nightclub singer Cherie in order to carry her back to Montana and marry her—against her will; the increasingly inebriated college professor is fleeing trouble in Kansas City but can’t stop looking for more with the café’s naïve young waitress, Elma; and the bus driver, Carl, and the café owner, Grace, want some temporary companionship on a cold winter’s night.

Love isn’t easy, Inge tells us, but it is possible if we’re willing to really see beneath the surface of ourselves and other people…and happy endings can occur, at least for some of us. “Bus Stop” was simplified and adapted into a movie with Marilyn Monroe as the experienced but vulnerable “chanteuse,” but the play has characters that the movie dropped: the compelling yet morally compromised Dr. Lyman (widely believed to be based on William Inge, himself) and the sheriff, Will, as his polar opposite — a man with a moral compass that the other characters can rely on. Virgil, Bo’s ranch hand and foster father, is the kind of good man who knows that fairy-tale endings are not for him.

The cast includes a great mix of old friends and new faces:

Elma - Elizabeth Robitaille; Grace - Rachael Wetzel; Will - Chuck Kraper; Cherie - Ashley Conyers; Dr. Lyman - Seth Bowling; Carl - Tyler Kean; Virgil - Joe Tramuta; and Bo - Steven Hall.

And Rob Clark, who has graced the stage for many years, is making his stage manager's debut on this show. Director Jonne Thornton has designed a late '40s, small-town Kansas diner with his usual verve and the set will be ready for on-stage cooking by our Feb. 21 opening.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for students,  The box office hours are from 5:15-7:15 p.m.; call 251-928-4366 and leave a message with an evening phone number.

Find out more about Theatre 98 on their newly-redesigned website at theatre98.org, and see rehearsal photos on the Theatre 98 Facebook page.

Call to action

A special request from Theatre 98’s historian, Tod Jonson: if you happen to have any vintage photos, programs, newspaper articles, etc. from or about the Theatre, he would love to add them to our archives. If these are precious keepsakes that you would like back (and of course we understand that perfectly!), Tod will make a copy and return the original to you. You may reach him at Todoflcs3@yahoo.com, or phone him at 251-929-1726.