UTC Theatre Co. presents “Bus Stop” Nov. 19-23

William Inge’s “Bus Stop,” a quintessentially American story about bus passengers stranded by a blizzard in a diner, is coming to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Fine Arts Center’s Dorothy Hackett Ward Theatre stage.

Performed by the UTC Theatre Co., “Bus Stop” runs at 7:30 p.m. from Nov. 19-23—with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Tickets can be purchased online by clicking here and through the UTC Box Office—in person or by phone (423-425-4369). Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students (with proof of student ID) and seniors.

The UTC Fine Arts Center is located at the intersection of Dr. Roland Carter Street (formerly known as Vine Street) and Palmetto Street on the UTC campus.

Written in 1955, “Bus Stop” premiered on Broadway the following year and earned four Tony Award nominations. Blending humor and drama, the production explores themes of love, isolation and self-discovery, offering a timeless reflection on the human experience.

Inge (1913-1973), known as the “Playwright of the Midwest,” captured the lives of ordinary Americans with realism and empathy. In addition to “Bus Stop,” he achieved acclaim in the 1950s with works like “Picnic” and “Come Back, Little Sheba,” winning both a Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award.

“The story weaves together the lives of eight different characters on this snowy Sunday morning in March 1955 in a little corner diner in the middle of nowhere Kansas,” said Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Acting Concentration Anne Swedberg—the director of the UTC Theatre Co. production.

“The mark of the 1950s is definitely in this play—everything from a telephone that’s mounted on the wall and is a landline and rings, to some of the conventions of speech, to some of the things that people say, to some of the gender roles that are typical of the era—but of course we’re doing it in 2024. We’ve blended some of those crisscrosses so that it’s still a period piece.”

The student cast is comprised of the following UTC undergraduates (academic year/major/hometown):

• Ellen Rich (junior/theatre: theatre entrepreneurship/Hixson, Tennessee)
• Emma Jo Moyle (senior/theatre: acting/Spring Hill, Tennessee)
• Cody Robinson (junior/theatre: acting/Ringgold, Georgia)
• Katie Forrester (senior/theatre: acting/Rocky Face, Georgia)
• Wilder Mills (freshman/theatre: acting/Cookeville, Tennessee)
• Cameron Branch (junior/theatre: acting/Waynesboro, Tennessee)
• Matthew Patrick (junior/accounting/Chattanooga)
• Kyle Varenkamp (freshman/theatre: theatre education/Franklin, Tennessee)

“It has been wonderful to work with all of these different students at different levels of their development as actors and as theatre people,” Swedberg said. “They are all rising to the occasion, they’re helping each other out, they’ve formed a powerful bond as a cast, and their work has just had a sort of organic natural development to it that’s an absolute pleasure to see.”

The “Bus Stop” production crew includes the following UTC students:

• Karlee Ming—stage manager (junior/theatre/Chattanooga)
• Gunter Hullander—assistant stage manager (sophomore/theatre: theatre education/Ringgold, Georgia)
• Katie Mullins—assistant stage manager (junior/theatre: theatre education/Antioch, Tennessee)
• Conard Belitz—assistant director (junior/theatre: design and technology/Kingston, Tennessee)
• Dauriya Matskevich—assistant director (senior/theatre: directing/St. Petersburg, Russia)

Other members of the production crew include Emma Hoffbauer (scenic designer), Taylor Busch (costume designer), Alex Miller-Long (lighting designer) and Gaye Jeffers (dramaturg).

Upcoming UTC Theatre Co. productions include:

• “Bright Star” by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Feb. 25-Mar. 1, 2025. Comedian Steve Martin and musician Edie Brickell’s sweeping tale of love and redemption in the bluegrass-infused landscape of the American South in the 1920s and ’40s.
• “John Proctor is the Villain” by Kimberly Belflower, Apr. 8-12, 2025. At a rural high school in Georgia, a group of lively teens are studying “The Crucible” while navigating young love, sex ed and a few school scandals.

For more information, visit the UTC Theatre Co. page.