THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL by Horton Foote, Hope Church at Monument Cafe, Georgetown September 12 - 14, 2013

Hope United Church, Agape Actors Co-Op and the legendary Monument Café of Georgetown
are joining forces to produce a dinner theatre production of the classic play

The Trip to Bountiful
by Horton Foote

September 12-14, 2013
as a benefit for Hope United Church and the Caring Place in Georgetown TX. 
Monument Cafe, 510 S. Austin St., Georgetown - click for map
Tickets are on sale now.

The Trip to Bountiful is staged by veteran director Olin Meadows who has directed recent productions of Steel Magnolias, and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. The Production features Joan Baker as Mrs. Carrie Watts, the role that recently won Cicelll Tyson a Tony Award. Nicholas Mani, an alumnus of St. Edwards University and Summer Stock Austin joins in as Ludie Watts, the Son who is worried about his older mother. Rounding out the family is Ivah Marie Sorber, who was recently seen in her 7th production of the Vagina Monologues. Joining the cast is Austin theatre veterans Mindy Rast Keenan and R. Michael Clinkscales, along with Sun City actors Patrick McElhinney, and Chuck Schlewitt.

The production is being presented as dinner theatre featuring a fantastic and delicious buffet of home cooked food from The Monument café, the Gold winner of “Best of Georgetown” and has been featured on the Food Network and in Texas Monthly magazine. Monument Café features mostly organic vegetables which are locally grown, Kobe beef, and free range eggs.

Tickets range from 40.00 for VIP seating, 35.00 for General Admission and 30.00 for students and seniors, tickets are on sale now and are available online at






www.brownpapertickets.com/triptobountiful. 

For those who are uncomfortable with online purchasing they may contact Olin Meadows at 512-468-0610 or by email olin.meadows@gmail.com.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Auditions in Georgetown for A Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote, Hope Church, July 2

Hope United Church and Monument Cafe are joining forces to produce a dinner theatre production of Horton Foote''s classic The Trip to Bountiful, directed by Olin Meadows as a benefit for Hope United Church in Georgetown TX. Hope United is an open and affirming Church accepting everyone in every walk of life. No matter your race, financial status, orientation, gender identity, etc...

Performances Sept 12-14, 2013. Rehearsals Starting July 9th (tues/thursday through mid-August then mon-thursday)

The Roles of Mrs. Watts, Ludie, and Jessie Mae are cast. 

Auditions July 2, 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. for available roles:

Sheriff: Man 30-60 strong presence and on the country side
Ticket Agent (3 Characters to be played by 1 actor): Male 35-75 needs to be a strong character actor.
Thelma: Woman younger 18-30 pretty, polite, looks like a nice girl you would want to meet.

There will be cold readings from the script. Please send Email to Olin.Meadows@gmail.com or call 512-468-0610 to schedule an audition time. Please email headshot and resume at time of appointment request.

Dividing the Estate by Horton Foote, Zach Theatre, May 29 - July 2

by Dr. David Glen Robinson

The Zach Theatre is a great showcase for local and regional art and talent, claiming as it does all the advantages of location, etc. It seems to hold court over Lady Bird Lake, with hill country scenery upstream and the shining, multi-colored towers of Austin across the lake. I visited Zach to see Dividing the Estate, Horton Foote’s 1989 play about a Texas family falling apart over estate inheritance.

To cut to the chase, the family had already fallen apart, and so had the estate of the title, which was really only a metaphor for that family. The former glory of the estate was represented by the gorgeous set by Cliff Simon. If you think this is a spoiler and with that the play was over save for upscale furniture-gnawing, think again,for this was indeed only the beginning. Dividing the Estate is a brilliant exposition of time and place and how the fortunes of families and individuals depend on those elemental things. The Zach Scott production of the play does it proud.

The time of the play is the mid-Eighties oil bust, the one centered in Houston. The place is fictional Harrison, Texas. The real-life place is Wharton, Texas, without a doubt. The characters discuss the features and problems of life in Wharton, Texas in great, accurate detail. These include the vast acreages of grazing land tumbling in value, proximity to Houston (in every sense), sulfur domes, oil wells, ranching mansions, a main street lined with empty store fronts and a plastics plant run by Asian investors (still in operation today).

Click to read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Dividing the Estate by Horton Foote, Zach Theatre, Mary 29 - July 1

 

presents

Dividing the Estate

by Horton Foote

May 29, 2012 - July 1

Zach Theatre Kleberg Stage, 1510 Toomey Rd. at S. Lamar (click for map)

Written by Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winner HORTON FOOTE | Directed by STEVEN DIETZ (Doubt, Shooting Star and Becky's New Car)
Please arrive early for parking.

Click to purchase tickets on-line

Student rush tickets: $18 One Hour Before Showtime (with Valid ID)

Bar opens 1 hour before showtime. Drinks welcome inside the theatre.

"In this deeply funny play, Horton Foote's gaze is focused with satiric sharpness."
- The New York Times

The Gordons of Harrison, Texas, have always been a greedy, gossipy clan. Now the malcontents from the Houston branch of the family come to the homestead and make pettiness an art form as they tangle over their inheritances. This is a play with echoes of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and rich humor reflecting Foote’s generous spirit and Texas roots.

Auditions at Zach Theatre for Horton Foote's Dividing The Estate, December 13

Found on-line:

ZACH Theatre announces auditions for Dividing the Estate by Horton Foote on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 in the ZACH Nowlin Rehearal Studio located at 15426 Toomey Road. Callbacks are slated for Saturday, December 17, 2011.

Steven Dietz will be directing this Tony award nominated comedy. Rehearsals begin on Monday, May 7, 2012. The first preview performance is on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 and opening night is Saturday, June 2. Performances will be Tuesdays through Sundays weekly with the final performance on Sunday, July 1.

Please be prepared to read sides from the play for the character for which you are interested in auditioning. Sides will be posted to the ZACH Theatre website when available.

Actors will be seen by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, please send an email with your name, phone number, email address, and the character(s) auditioning for to auditions@zachtheatre.org. All actors should bring a headshot and resume to the audition.

We are seeking both AEA and non-AEA actors. [ALT note: Twelve roles are open - four men and eight women -- click to view capsule descriptions at AustinLiveTheatre.com.]

SHOW SYNOPSIS The Gordons of Harrison, Texas, have always been a greedy, gossipy clan. Now the malcontents from the Houston branch of the family come to the homestead and make pettiness an art form as they tangle over their inheritances. This play echoes the domestic drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with rich humor reflecting Foote’s generous spirit and Texas roots.

Email: auditions@zachtheatre.org Website: http://www.zachtheatre.org

The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote, Austin Playhouse, November 19 - December 18

This is a memory play, an exercise in yearning -- not only for the principal character Carrie Watts, but also for playwright Horton Foote and for the audience. Where are they, those vanished earlier times, and what were they really like? Depending entirely on her son and her daughter-in-law in their apartment somewhere in the Houston of 1953, Carrie Watts longs to return to her home, a house somewhere in rural Texas at a crossroads with the melancholy, ironic name of "Bountiful."

The place still exists, as we learn while following Carrie's great escape, but as she inevitably discovers, there's no longer much of "home" about it, other than the sagging structure of the homestead.

Christopher Loveless's images make the point powerfully. In the publicity photo Carrie and her bags sit before a light-filled rural road -- as out-of-place and as photo-shopped as a 19th century portrait taken before a painted backdrop. In performance all that light and liberty disappears, for director Toner situates these actors in a virtually featureless black box, provided with minimal props and simple furnishings. The concept is so stark and featureless that the Playhouse lists no credit for stage design.

The story is intimately tied to the simple human ity of the characters and the authenticity of the voices given to them by the cast. The accents, rhythms and the perceptive costuming by Buffy Manners situate them in that specific moment in urbanizing Texas as director Toner and the cast deliver Foote's simple, powerful parable.

Read more and view additional images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . .

Upcoming: The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote, Austin Playhouse, November 19 - December 18

Received directly:

Austin Playhouse Presents

The Trip to Bountiful

by Horton Foote

November 19 - December 18; Thursdays–Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

Austin Playhouse, 3601 S. Congress, Bldg. C

www.austinplayhouse.com and on Facebook and Twitter

Tickets $26 Thursday and Friday, $28 Saturday and Sunday, $35 Opening Night

available online at: www.austinplayhouse.com or from the box office 512.476.0084; season tickets available

In the second main stage production of the 2010-2011 season, Austin Playhouse brings the late Horton Foote’s television play The Trip to Bountiful to the stage.

Producer Don Toner says the heartwarming play is “a testament to the idea of home and its power to sustain us.”

The Trip to Bountiful was written by Foote as a teleplayfor NBC in 1953 and presented onstage shortly afterward. In 1985 the play was adapted for the big screen for a movie starring Geraldine Page, John Heard and Carlin Glynn. The film production brought Foote an Oscar nomination for the category of Best Script. Geraldine Page won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.

Set during World War II, Foote’s most celebrated work focuses on a different war: the war of the Watts family. Aging Carrie Watts feels trapped in the too-close quarters of her son’s small home. Reflecting on her many trying life experiences, Watts hopes to find contentment by returning to her small town childhood home of Bountiful, Texas, three decades after moving away. Standing in the way of fulfilling her dream are her daughter-in-law and son, who want her to stay with them in Houston so they might continue living off her pension.

When Watts ultimately makes it back to Bountiful, the changes she finds in her hometown are both heartbreaking and brilliantly life affirming.

Widely celebrated playwright Foote, a native Texan, won Oscars for Tender Mercies and for his adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Foote won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for The Young Man from Atlanta.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

First Horton Foote prizes go to Lyn Nottage and Will Eno

From playbill.com via ArtsJournal.com:

Lynne Nottage's Ruined and Will Eno's Middletown Named First Recipients of Horton Foote Prizes

By Andrew Gans
30 Aug 2010

Winners of the newly established Horton Foote Prizes, named in honor of the late legendary writer, were announced Aug. 30.

Presented biennially "to award excellence in American Theater," the first winners include Lynne Nottage's Ruined for Outstanding New American Play and Will Eno's Middletown for Promising New American Play.

Nottage and Eno will be honored at a private reception Sept. 20 at The Players in New York City. Each playwright will be presented with $15,000 and a limited edition of Keith Carter's photograph of Horton Foote.

As contenders for Outstanding New American Play and Promising New American Play, Nottage and Eno were nominated by Manhattan Theatre Club and Vineyard Theatre, respectively.

Read more at playbill.com . . . .

Link to HortonFootePrize.com . . . . (as of August 31, announcement has not yet been posted)

Upcoming: The Carpetbaggers' Children by Horton Foote, Different Stages at Austin Playhouse Larry L. King Theatre, March 19 - April 10

Click for ALT review, March 25

UPDATE: Review by Robert Faires for the Austin Chronicle, March 25

Related: Robert Faires' 1750-word profile of Horton Foote for the Austin Chronicle, March 10 (mentioning this production in a footnote below the text)

Found on-line:






presents

The Carpetbagger's Children
by Horton Foote
directed by Norman Blumensaadt
March 19 - April 10
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Austin Playhouse, Larry L. King Stage, Penn Field
3601 S. Congress Ave. (map)
Pick your Price: $15, $20, $25, $30

"I believe very deeply in the human spirit,
and I have a sense of awe about it
because I don't know how people carry on.
I've known people that the world has thrown everything at
to discourage them, to kill them, to break their spirit.
And yet something about them retains a dignity.
They face life and they don't ask quarters."
Horton Foote, NY Times Magazine, 1986.

Different Stages continues its 2009 2010 season with The Carpetbagger’s Children by Horton Foote, Pulitzer Prize and Oscar winning author of plays and screenplays such as The Trip to Bountiful, Tender Mercies and To Kill A Mockingbird.

In funny, moving, engaging monologues, three sisters spin the tale of their family and an era. Their father, the eponymous carpetbagger, was a former Union soldier who used his post as county treasurer and tax collector to amass a Texas plantation of twenty thousand acres. Preserving that plantation through the vicissitudes of their lives becomes a central issue for his daughters. It’s all about family secrets, tribal memories, sibling rivalry, and how change stalks our lives.

Directed by Norman Blumensaadt (The Skin of Our Teeth), The Carpetbagger’s Children features Jennifer Underwood (Miss Witherspoon), Anne Hulsman (The Long Now) and Kathy Rose Center (Shakespeare’s Husbands and Wives).

For tickets and information call AusTix at 512 474-8497.

Arts Reporting: Marchbanks Foundation in Austin Establishes $30,000 Playwriting Prize to Honor Horton Foote

Found on-line at New York Times:





January 5, 2010, 2:00 p.m.

Playwright’s Prize Established in Honor of Horton Foote

By DAVE ITZKOFF

Horton Foote’s work includes the “Orphan’s Home Cycle” of plays and the screenplays for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Trip to Bountiful.”

The name and spirit of Horton Foote, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter, will live on in a playwriting award that will be given out for the first time this fall.

The creation of the Horton Foote Prize was announced Tuesday and was endorsed by Mr. Foote before his death in March. It will be awarded every other year to “an American playwright who has written an original work of exceptional quality,” its organizers said in news release.

The competition will invite 65 resident theaters to submit a play by an author who has written at least three original full-length plays that have been produced by professional theaters; selection committees will choose a short list of finalists; and the winner will be determined by a group of four artistic directors Mr. Foote worked with closely: Andre Bishop (of Lincoln Center Theater); James Houghton (Signature Theater Company); Michael Wilson (Hartford Stage Company); and Andrew Leynse (Primary Stages).

The $30,000 prize will be supplied by the Greg and Mari Marchbanks Family Foundation of Austin, Texas. Ms. Marchbanks is also the founder and executive director of the prize committee.

= = =

WEBSITE for the prize: HortonFootePrize.org
[image of Horton Foote posted at HortonFootePrize.org]

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Texas Tales 2009 benefit for Austin Public Library, September 12

Received directly, the announcement of a theatre, music and entertainment event to benefit the Austin Public Library, chaired by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and themed to honor Texas playwright the late Horton Foote.

Individual tickets are $100; tickets with special sponsor status are priced higher.

Click image for larger version.

Click here for link to APL site for tickets.