Hunter Miller
Bus Stop Critique
4/2/14

The name of the play was Bus Stop, and the playwright is William Inge. The play was presented at Dyersburg State Community College theatre in Dyersburg, TN. Mrs. Meliah Lewis directed the play. The play was presented on March 27th through the 29th. I saw the play on the 29th. The play starts in a diner called Grace’s Diner. Set in the 1950s a terrible blizzard comes through the town. The bus stop right outside of the diner has a bus stop. When the final bus of the night stops in, the sheriff is notified that the highway patrol has closed the road out of town towards the bus’ destination, Montana. The very diversified group of passengers on the bus are then forced to spend the night in the diner until morning. The driver of the bus and owner of the diner are interested in each other and end up going to the owners’ apartment above the diner. The professor on the bus ends up trying to sweet talk the waitress at the diner. The waitress unknowingly agrees to meet up with professor later in the week, and ends up finding out the professor isn’t a professor at all. There are two cowboys on the bus from a ranch in Montana. One of the cowboys has pretty much kidnapped at singer from a club and is in love with her and telling her they are getting married against her will. The sheriff of the town stays around the diner to make sure that the singer is well protected and respected by the cowboy. The cowboy doesn’t listen to well and ends up getting into a brawl with the sheriff and doesn’t come out on the winning end of it. The other cowboy ends up giving his friend some good advice about apologizing to everybody at the diner. After the apologies take place the singer decides she does like the cowboy and agrees to marry him and join him in Montana. The cowboys’ companion decides to stay at the diner and find something new with life. Ends up everybody at the diner was lost before the bus stops and at the end they have all found they’re way. The cowboy in love with the singer was clearly the most enthusiastic and best actor in the play. He was very convincing in his role and also very funny at times to be funny and very serious and caring at those times as well. His costume was good at portraying the time and his character. The bus driver despite having a smaller role than others in the play, was very good in his acting and comedy. There were a few lines he had that were really hilarious. His costume was good given the time set in the play and in looking like a bus driver. The owner of the diner was good in most parts of the play. There were a few times you could tell she forgot her lines and paused to think of them. Overall without knowing it you could tell she was the owner and did a good job of portraying her character. There wasn’t anything big I would change about the play. Overall the play was done very well. It was very funny and also serious at times. Good in the portraying of the characters. I would definitely recommend seeing this play to anybody where it is being performed near him or her. Bus Stop is great tale of the difference and variety of people and good in teaching life lessons and very funny. If you’re looking for a good life and a good play, go see Bus Stop.