By Elizabeth Weeks/nw news editor
   Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, the upcoming NW Campus drama production, presents a look at people facing the end of the world.
   “ This play is ironically and sarcastically a romp toward falling off the deep end of the planet,” Trenton Stuart Meyer, who plays Shep, said.
   Written by Bruce Graham, Early One Evening at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, is set in a bar in a tiny west Texas town. While it is a typical small town bar, the events of the evening are far from ordinary.
   In this bar, six unlikely characters meet and face a catastrophic dilemma—the world is coming to an end because of an atomic crisis.
   As the six strangers in the Rainbow Bar and Grill wait for the end of the world, they struggle with the challenge of facing themselves, their lives and each other.
   “ This story is basically a love story about people finding romance in a difficult situation and learning to trust themselves and other people,” Kayla Foster, who plays Virginia, said.
   The main character in this robust play is Shep, the bartender, who is struggling to be an author.
   After traveling America to try to find inspiration, Shep winds up working at the bar to support himself until he gets a book published.
   “ Shep is a small town anomaly,” Meyer said.
   “ He is the only person in town who has an education, other than Virginia, so he keeps to himself,” he said.
   The other major character is Virginia, a physical education teacher with a strong will and personality.
   Though a strong character, Virginia is stressed because of her impending doom.
   While left to spend her final hours with the other characters in the bar, Virginia finds herself falling in love with Shep.
   Other characters in the play include Joe, played by Tony Boone, who appears to be a traveling salesman but whose true identity will shock everyone; Shirley, played by Kristyn Smith, a waitress interested in Shep; Roy, played by Gustuf Young, a crazy mechanic whose only regret is not having gone to Disneyland; and Bullard, played by Ray Haney, a real traveling salesman.
   This play offers a different kind of theater experience for the audience and the cast.
   The audience literally sits on the stage with the cast, experiencing the bar situation first hand.
   In addition, the play contains live blank gunfire, so anyone with heart or hearing problems or who is pregnant needs to be aware of the risk.
   This play contains adult themes and ideas, making it more appropriate for a mature audience.
   The NW Campus production runs Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 23-26 in the WFAB Theatre with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
   Tickets are $5 for general admission, $3 for seniors and non-TCC students and free for TCC students, faculty and staff. Call 817-515-7724 for reservations.