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)

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 . . . .