The Petrified Forest at Theatre West

The setting is a combination gas station/luncheonette set on a desolate stretch of highway in the Arizona desert. Gabby Maple, the waitress in the joint owned by her dad, has dreams of becoming an artist in France. She is enough of a realist to understand that her chances of realizing her ambition are slim. She is ready for Boze, the local jock, to deflower her when in drops Alan Squier. Alan is a poet, intellectual and drifter who encourages Gabby and causes her to fall for him. Romance will have to wait, as the notorious criminal Duke Mantee and his gang of heat-packing desperadoes take over the café. The gang is on the lam from a massive police pursuit and is ready to kill anyone who gets in their way. Everyone there, from Gabby's grandfather to tourists unlucky enough to be passing through at that moment, is in deadly danger. Is there a chance for Gabby's and Alan's romance? Will Duke and his gun-toting thugs evade the law? Will anyone at the luncheonette even survive?