Rattlestick's Middle Voice Theater Presents BUS STOP, Now thru 3/31

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Middle Voice Theater Company has announced a production of William Inge's Bus Stop, directed By Jenna Worsham, which opens tonight, March 27 and runs until Sunday, March 31 at the Producers' Club's Royal Theater.

Smalltown Kansas, 1953: It seems like a regular night at Grace's diner, until a blizzard stalls a small crowd of peculiar travelers. In the midst of Cowboys, Shakespeare, and bigtown hopes, the rowdy group is comically rearranged by morning- having achieved, or else fallen prey, to the great and mystifying American Dream.

Bus Stop features George West Carruth as Virgil, Jose Febus as Dr. Lyman, Paul Foster as Carl, Xavier Galva as Bo, Yadi GuevaraPrip as Elma, Jasmine Hughes as Cherie, Alexander Lambie as Will and Heather Oakley as Grace.

The production also features costume design by Giulia Cauti, props & set design by Ren Santiago & Jose Robles and sound design by David Zheng. Additional production team members: production assistant Alec Silberblatt, stage manager Jeni Pritchett, assistant director Kevin Mannering, Rattlestick producing coordinator Christina Hurtado and associate producer Robb Nanus.

The Middle Voice Theater Company is a part of Rattlestick Educates and forms the apprentice company of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. It is a group of young artists; a mix of actors, directors, and playwrights from diverse backgrounds. It was created in 2012 and has grown since then into a breeding ground for up and coming theater artists. Their mission is to create theater that takes risks, encourages ensemble, and starts a conversation.Their most recent full production, Waiting For Lefty, played a soldout run last summer at the Access Theater and toured the tristate area.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is a multi-award-winning company which has produced over sixty world premieres in the past seventeen seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for developing new and innovative work. Previous plays include Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man, A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy,Stuck, Vick's Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed, Neil's Garden, My Special Friend, Faster, Bliss, St. Crispin's Day, Where We're Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passionplay, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, Dark Matters, Stay, American Sligo, Rag and Bone, War, Geometry of Fire, That Pretty Pretty or The Rape Play, The Amish Project, Killers and Other Family, Post No Bills, Blind, Little Doc, underneathmybed, There Are No More Big Secrets, The Hallway Trilogy, Carson McCullers Talks About Love, The Wood, Asuncion, Horsedreams, Yosemite, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), 3C, the OffBroadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June, Craig Wright's The Pavilion (Drama Desk nominee Outstanding Play of 2005) and Lady (Drama Desk nominee - Outstanding Play of 2008), as well as The Aliens by Annie Baker (2010 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play).

Individual tickets to Bus Stop are available to the public beginning March 7. They can be reserved at www.busstop.eventbrite.com and/or by emailing robbnanus@gmail.com. All tickets are free with a suggested donation of $5. The Producers' Club's Royal Theater is located at 358 West 44th Street (at Ninth Avenue).