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Director Warren Carpenter sits in the front row of the Oconee Community Theatre auditorium. A Seneca resident, Carpenter is directing the current OCT production of “Bus Stop.” Photo by Mykal McEldowney/Staff

SENCECA — With $6,000 in the bank and a 24-inch color TV, Bo is one fancy cowboy. At 19, Cherie is an aspiring nightclub singer who’s been around the block more times than an ice cream truck. The collision of these characters provides “Bus Stop” with heat and hoot.

Written by William Ingle, “Bus Stop” premiered in 1955 on Broadway. Tonight, the Oconee Community Theatre (OCT) begins a reprisal of the show.

“It’s a love affair, but kind of twisted,” said director Warren Carpenter. “He’s 21 and never been with a woman. Morally speaking, she should be in his position and he should be in his. ‘Bus Stop’ was written in the early-50s, when these kinds of stories were taboo.”

The premise is in tune with the rest of Inge’s canon. The playwright is known for finding glimmer in the ordinary, and in 1953 that ability earned him a Pulitzer Prize for “Picnic.”

But Ingle had the misfortune of being a playwright during the prime of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. Still, Sampson believes Inge belongs in the same category as the behemoths behind “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Death of a Salesman.”

“Inge stacks up because he delivers a credible America. If you really listen to the dialogue (in ‘Bus Stop’), you’ll hear things you might ordinarily miss,” Sampson said. “The script is filled with innuendo. If the lines are not delivered right, that’s missed. He brings these things out, like a sleight of hand.”

“Bus Stop” is set in a diner 20 miles outside of Kansas City. When a fierce snowstorm puts departures on pause, eight characters are brought together in an early morning layover.

Among the stranded: a boozy professor with a penchant for (much) younger women; a staunch sheriff; the hard-nosed broad running the bus stop diner; a foxy teenage waitress; an older sage-like cowboy; and a bus driver involved in a carnal and convenient relationship with the diner owner.

Cue the interweaving subplots.

Even though “Bus Stop” was written half a century ago, Sampson said the storylines still play.

“The problems and social issues in the ’50s are basically the same in 2008. Now some of the subjects may be more socially accepted, but the problems are the same — people not wanting to be faithful, people trying to force relationship where they ought not to,” Sampson said.

A Seneca resident, Sampson has appeared in approximately 15 local productions as an actor. He’s worked on shows ranging from “Night of the Living Dead” to “Driving Miss Daisy,” starring as chauffer Hoke Colburn in the latter.

Sampson debuted as a director two seasons ago, with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” at OCT.

As a director, Sampson, 53, strives for a natural feel. That can be difficult in theatre, a medium not known for subtlety.

“Whether I achieve or not, my goal is to make the show seem as if the audience is eavesdropping in on real conversations,” Sampson said. “I want them to get so involved in what’s going on between the characters, that after 20 to 30 minutes, they feel like this is a slice of people’s lives.”

One thing Sampson hasn’t done in preparation for “Bus Stop”: watch the film version. Starring Marilyn Monroe and also known as “The Wrong Kind of Girl,” the 1956 picture is actually an amalgam of two Inge plays, “Bus Stop” and “People in the Wind.”

“I don’t want to get into my mind the way this is ‘supposed’ to be done,” Sampson said. “I’ve tried to discourage the cast members from seeing (the film). The mind is funny; once you see something, you want to imitate it.”