By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
DOWAGIAC – Dowagiac's own Jennifer Swisher plays the Marilyn Monroe part in Beckwith Theatre's production of "Bus Stop," opening tonight for a two-weekend run.
Swisher, who graduated with Union High School's Class of 2000 and from Central Michigan University in 2004, now teaches in Edwardsburg.
She portrays a reluctant passenger on a bus stranded on the route from Kansas City to Topeka in the dramedy directed by Pat Sanders.
Set in a seedy Kansas cafe in the middle of a snowstorm circa 1958, the inclement weather makes the characters' lives and personalities emerge in the William Inge play.
Sanders' cast also includes Emily Gunn as Elma the diner waitress, Karen Pugh as its owner, Grace, Franklin Ward as Will the sheriff, Jeff Gunn as Bo, Tony Meloche as Virgil, Paul Pugh as Dr. Lyman and, in his stage debut, Cass County Commissioner David Taylor, an Edwardsburg attorney, as the bus driver, Carl.
Each character reaches in his or her own way for the warmth of love, companionship and acceptance, while the cold wind of loneliness wails outside.
"Bus Stop" starts at 7:30 p.m. tonight, and Saturday, Aug. 18 and Aug. 24 and 25, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 19 and 26, at the Beckwith, 100 New York Ave.
"Virgil is Bo's head ranch hand," explains Meloche, strumming on a guitar. He is a former Dowagiac vocal music teacher. "He's Bo's father figure."
Bo saw Cherie, Swisher's character, "in a nightclub and decided he was going to marry her. Period," Meloche explained. "He basically abducted her onto the bus," so she enlists protection from the sheriff.
"We was 'familiar' with each other once, and that means we're getting married," Gunn offers in his character's accent.
"He's got old-style manners," Meloche added. "He's got to make an honest woman out of her, which she wants no part of. Paul is a college professor who can't hold a job, even though he's brilliant, because he drinks too much and he's got a taste for young ladies."