“I’m not one of those girls that jump in a hot-rod every time you boys turn the corner and honk.” – Madge Cal State San Bernardino’s Department of Theatre Arts continues its acclaimed 2018-19 Season to Shout About, with William Inge’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “Picnic” – a story of a bittersweet summer romance between everyday people desiring to escape from the expectations of small-town life. It is Labor Day 1962, in a small, Kansas town where two families are preparing for an annual picnic in their shared backyard. When Hal Carter, an exciting drifter, rambles into town to visit his old college friend – the predictable everyman Alan – the not-so-subtle women of the town begin to talk and flirt. But when Alan’s beautiful girlfriend Madge and Hal meet, something awakens in her … does she succumb to her newfound feelings and escape the preordained or play it safe like her mother did, leading to inevitable disappointment? Unlike the original script set in 1953, CSUSB’s “Picnic” features a time hop into the early 1960s allowing for added tension of a multi-racial cast set during the heart of the American Civil Rights movement in the Midwest, not to mention the ability to include pre-British Invasion rock and roll of the time. “Picnic,” directed by Terry Donovan Smith, plays on the Barnes Theatre stage March 8, 9, 14, 15, and 16 at 8 p.m., March 10 and 17 at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased from the CSUSB Theatre Arts Box Office, or online at theatre.csusb.edu, with individual tickets at $6 for students and children under 17; $12 for faculty, staff, senior citizens and military; $15 for adults. Performances take place in the Ronald E. Barnes Theatre on the CSUSB campus. Parking at CSUSB is $6 Monday-Friday and $3 on the weekend. For additional information, please contact the Theatre Box Office at (909) 537-5884 or theatrearts@csusb.edu.