Gwinnett Daily Post

WINDER - Audiences will be snowed in at a rural Kansas diner for the duration of the Winder-Barrow Community Theatre's final show in its 2009 Main Stage season.

In "Bus Stop," the 1955 play by William Inge, three passengers on a bus out of Kansas City and their driver will be forced to hole up in the roadside diner to wait out the snowstorm along with the diner's owner, a waitress and the local sheriff.

From an aspiring nightclub singer kidnapped by a love-sick cowboy to a college philosophy professor with a drinking problem, the comedy lies in the characters' quirks.

"Bus Stop" opened on Broadway in March 1955 and closed after 478 performances. A film of the same name is loosely based on Inge's play.

Proceeds from the Winder-Barrow Community Theatre's production will benefit the Adult Continuing Education Center to help fun scholarships and purchase supplies for students working toward a GED or studying English as a second language. A portion of ticket sales from each show in the theater's season are donated to a local, nonprofit organization in support of community outreach.

The Winder-Barrow Community Theatre will present "Bus Stop" in a six-show run beginning the weekend of Oct. 23 and continuing through Nov. 1.

SideBar: If you go

· What: "Bus Stop," presented by the Winder-Barrow Community Theatre

· When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays Oct. 23 through Nov. 1

· Where: Colleen Williams Theater in the Winder Cultural Arts Center, 105 E. Athens St. in Winder

· Cost: $12.50 in advance for adults and $10 in advance for seniors 55 and older, students and teachers

· For more information: Visit www.winderbarrowtheatre.org