Kansas City Repertory Theatre Opens BUS STOP, March 12

Eric Rosen, artistic director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre, has announced that William Inge's 1955 classic Bus Stop will run at Spencer Theatre, March 12-April 4, 2010.

Staging the Inge classic is part of Rosen's plan for the Rep to produce at least one play each season that reflects Kansas City and its region. Bus Stop, a drama laced with romantic and comedic overtones, is set in a rural diner about 20 miles west of Kansas City.

Inge (1913-1973) was born in Independence, Kansas, and has been called the playwright of the Midwest. His repertoire of works, which frequently revolve around the cities of the Central Plains, resonates with realism and humor. His most well-known plays include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Picnic, Come Back, Little Sheba and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Inge also won an Academy Award for best screenplay for the film Splendor in the Grass.

Early in his career, Inge was the drama and music critic for the St. Louis-Times. While there, he became acquainted with Tennessee Williams and accompanied him to Chicago for a performance of The Glass Menagerie, which inspired Inge to try his hand at writing plays.

The William Inge Center for the Arts, now one of the leading rural arts organizations in the nation, was established in 1981 in the playwright's hometown. The following year, the now-acclaimed William Inge Theatre Festival was created. Rosen made his Inge Festival directing debut in May when he staged a reading of Diagram of a Paper Airplane by Carlos Murrillo.

Now in its 45th season, Kansas City Repertory Theatre is its region's only member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and serves as the professional theatre in residence at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). The Rep produces mainstage plays and special events at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus and Copaken Stage located in downtown Kansas City. Kansas City Rep employs more than 250 professional artists, technicians and administrators, and serves more than 100,000 patrons annually.

For more information visit www.kcrep.com.