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Community Corner

Fridays @ 3: Bus Stop

Directed by Aidan O’Hara
Assistant Directed by Olivia Moriarty
Stage Managed by Maggie Ryan

Featuring the company of "Almost, Maine" in three different play readings. Come spend the afternoon with us and hear a play read aloud.

July 12, 19, 26 @ 3pm

Black Box Theatre- Regis College 
No tickets needed. Donations are welcome.  Please email wdwfridaysat3@gmail.com with your name, number of people, and the staged reading you will attend.

Find out what's happening in Waylandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

July 12 @ 3pm: BUS STOP by William Inge  In the middle of a howling snowstorm, a bus out of Kansas City pulls up at a cheerful roadside diner. All roads are blocked, and four or five weary travelers are going to have to hole up until morning. Cherie, a nightclub chanteuse in a sparkling gown and a seedy fur-trimmed jacket, is the passenger with most to worry about. She's been pursued, made love to and finally kidnapped by a twenty-one-year-old cowboy with a ranch of his own and the romantic methods of an unusually headstrong bull. The belligerent cowhand is right behind her, ready to sling her over his shoulder and carry her, alive and kicking, all the way to Montana. Even as she's ducking out from under his clumsy but confident embraces, and screeching at him fiercely to shut him up, she pauses to furrow her forehead and muse, "Somehow deep inside of me I got a funny feeling I'm gonna end up in Montana …" As a counterpoint to the main romance, the proprietor of the cafe and the bus driver at last find time to develop a friendship of their own; a middle-age scholar comes to terms with himself; and a young girl who works in the cafe also gets her first taste of romance.

Cast 
ELMA DUCKWORTH, a waitress – Abi Kohn 
GRACE HOYLAND, owner of the restaurant – Kat O’Connor 
WILL MASTERS, a Sheriff – Ryan Feir 
CHERIE, a chanteuse – Caroline Eldridge 
DR. GERALD LYMAN, a former college professor – Max Alagna 
CARL, a bus driver – Jake Venet 
VIRGIL BLESSING, a ranch hand – Larson Miller 
BO DECKER, a young ranch hand and cowboy – David Makransky 
STAGE DIRECTIONS read by Allie Pineault

 "…Mr. Inge (author of Picnic) has put together an uproarious comedy that never strays from the truth."NY Times "William Inge should be a great comfort to all of us…he brings to the theatre a kind of warm-hearted compassion, creative vigor, freshness of approach and appreciation of average humanity that can be wonderfully touching and stimulating."NY Post

July 19 @ 3pm: CRIMES OF THE HEART by Beth Henley.  The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach. Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future—but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended. 

Winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. An astonishing first play, initially presented by the Actors Theatre of Louisville, then Off-Broadway, and then on Broadway, where it established the author as a major voice in our theatre. Warm-hearted, irreverent, zany and brilliantly imaginative, the play teems with humanity and humor as it examines the plight of three young Mississippi sisters betrayed by their passions.

Cast 
LENNY MAGRATH, the older sister – Allie Pineault 
CHICK BOYLE, the sisters’ first cousin – Alexandra Ebbs 
DOC PORTER, Meg’s old boyfriend – Billy Veer 
MEG MAGRATH, the middle sister – Crystal Evans 
BABE BOTRELLE, the youngest sister –Katelyn Alcott 
BARNETTE LLYOD, Babe’s sister – David Dines 
STAGE DIRECTIONS read by Andrew Ramsey

Find out what's happening in Waylandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 "While this play overflows with infectious high spirits, it is also, unmistakably, the tale of a very troubled family. Such is Miss Henley's prodigious talent that she can serve us pain as though it were a piece of cake."NY Times "It has heart, wit and a surprisingly zany passion that must carry all before it…it would certainly be a crime for anyone interested in the theatre not to see this play."NY Post "From time to time a play comes along that restores one's faith in our theatre…" -- NY Magazine

July 26 @ 3pm: THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by "Froggy" LeSeuer, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time "Froggy" has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers. So "Froggy," before departing, tells all assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Once alone the fun really begins, as Charlie overhears more than he should—the evil plans of a sinister, two-faced minister and his redneck associate; the fact that the minister's pretty fiancée is pregnant; and many other damaging revelations made with the thought that Charlie doesn't understand a word being said. That he does fuels the nonstop hilarity of the play and sets up the wildly funny climax in which things go uproariously awry for the "bad guys," and the "good guys" emerge triumphant. 

Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production. An inspired comic romp, equal in inventive hilarity to the author's classic comedy The Nerd, the present ay enjoyed a sold-out premiere in Milwaukee before moving on to a long run Off-Broadway. Based on what the NY Post describes as a "devilishly clever idea," the play demonstrates what can happen when a group of devious characters must deal with a stranger who (they think) knows no English.

Cast 
S/Sgt. “FROGGY” LeSUEUR – Andrew Ramsey 
CHARLIE BAKER – Peter Diamond 
BETTY MEEKS – Caralyn Aufiero 
REV. DAVID MARSHALL LEE – Conor Sweeney 
CATHERINE SIMMS – Cailin McCormack 
OWEN MUSSER – Max Alagna 
ELLARD SIMMS – To be determind

 "Something funny is going on in Milwaukee—to the delight of audiences at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre."Variety "I laughed start to finish at one comic surprise after another."The New Yorker "…a constant invitation to relax and laugh at the foolishness of life…"Village Voice "Shue's comedy is positively antic, yet pleasantly seasoned with a few dashes of sentimentality…He has raided comedy's storehouse…"Bergen Record


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