To be a good director you sometimes have to be a good actor.
“You have to have a poker face as a director,” said Gary Puckett, who is directing “Bus Stop” at The Riverfront Playhouse in Aurora. “When something bad happens, I turn to the cast and say, ‘It’s O.K. It’ll be fine,’ even though I may be concerned. But they look to me for reassurance.”
Puckett has been reassuring cast members in various capacities for many years having written, directed and appeared in dozens of plays over the years at Riverfront and with other theater groups. He’s also revisiting “Bus Stop.”
“I did this show as an actor with Riverfront in 1979,” said Puckett, who portrayed Carl, the bus driver, in the show. “It was the third show that the theater ever did. I was just out of school and my thought then was, ‘This is not avant-garde. It’s just fluff.'”
“But I read the play again and it is a very funny show, almost slapstick, yet poignant,” he continued. “You tear up, then you laugh. It’s the juxtaposition from one emotion to the other.”
“Bus Stop,” by William Inge, will be presented at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays from May 5 through June 10 at The Riverfront Playhouse in Aurora.
It is set in 1955 and centers on Bo Decker (played by Frank Warpeha), a young cowboy who falls in love with Cherie (played by Amaria Von Dran), a nightclub singer with a dubious reputation. Although his sidekick, Virgil (played by Chris Contreras), tries to talk him out of it, Bo is determined to take Cherie to Montana and marry her. But fate intervenes when a blizzard strands the bus they are on at a small café run by Grace (played by Kristen Duerdoth).
Another passenger on the bus is Dr. Lyman (played by Steve Rasmussen), an alcoholic, ex-college professor who has a weakness for underage girls and who is soon tempted when he meets the café’s sole waitress, Elma (played by Heidi Schultz). Also in the diner are Carl (played by Robert Becker), an oversexed bus driver and Will (played by Tim Slewitzke), a stern church-going sheriff.
“Bus Stop” opened on Broadway on March 2, 1955, and closed on April 21, 1956, after a total of 478 performances. The play was adapted into a 1956 movie starring Marilyn Monroe.
“I view it as a fairy tale for adults,” said Puckett of the romantic comedy. “(The playwright) Inge loves these characters. They have a real sense of humanity.”
Part of the reason for Riverfront doing this show at this time is practicality.
“Last year we did a show with a café set: ‘Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,’thin” Puckett said. “We had hoped to use the set again. Since I know a lot of plays, someone asked me to make a list of shows with cafés and ‘Bus Stop’ was one of them.”
Because the show is a period piece, finding the right costumes has been a challenge, he said.
“We look in all of our closets and hit the thrift stores,” Puckett said. “Kristin Duerdoth, who plays Grace, the café owner, ordered two waitress uniforms and she added collars and sleeves on them for the ’50s look.”
Although “Bus Stop” is a comedy, Puckett believes it carries a message.
“We have to break through our little prisons to make contact with somebody,” he said. “There is hope in the story, but also a sense of things not always working out.”
Randall G. Mielke is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.
‘Bus Stop’
When: May 5-June 10
More Top Picks Best Large Print Keyboards For Low Vision
Where: The Riverfront Playhouse, 11-13 South Water Street Mall, Aurora
Tickets: $15-$17
Information: 630-897-9496, www.riverfrontplayhouse.com