The Playwrights Database
HORTON FOOTE
(1916 - 2009)Nationality: USA
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: ICM Partners
Horton Foote died just months before he could finally win that elusive Tony award. When Horton Foote died Wednesday 4 March 2009 at age 92, he was hard at work on the most ambitious project of his nearly seven-decade writing career. "the Orphans Home Cycle" - a collection of nine of Horton Foote's plays set in the fictional version of his hometown of Wharton, Texas - will premiere at Hartford Stage in the fall before moving on to off-Broadway's Signature Theater. the onetime actor turned to playwrighting at the suggestion of good friend choreographer agnes DeMille ("Oklahoma!"). While Horton Foote turned out more than 60 plays - beginning with the one-act "Wharton Dance" in 1940 - only eight of them played on Broadway. and none of these lasted more than a few months. However, his most recent rialto run - the Lincoln Center Theatre production of "Dividing the estate" - could be a contender at the Tony awards in June. That top Broadway kudo was the one prize that eluded Horton Foote in his lifetime. His only nomination came in 1997 for "the Young Man From AtlantA." While he was bested by Alfred Uhry's "the Last Night of Ballyhoo," Horton Foote did win the Pulitzer Prize for "AtlantA." For his screen adaptation of the best-selling Harper Lee novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," he won at the Oscars in 1962. That hit movie earned eight Oscar nominations in all, including best picture. and leading man Gregory Peck finally triumphed with his fifth lead actor nod. the role of atticus Finch would come to define the actor to generations and topped the 2003 aFI list of screen heroes. In 1983 Horton Foote won a second Oscar, this time for his original script for "Tender Mercies." That film starred Robert Duvall, who had made a memorable screen debut as Boo Radley in "Mockingbird." Duvall won the lead actor Oscar on the fourth of six nominations. and two years later, Horton Foote adapted his 1953 play "a Trip to Bountiful" for the big screen. Foote lost his writing race to Kurt Luedtke, who adapted various works for best pic "Out of AfricA." However, the film's star - Geraldine Page - finally prevailed as lead actress after seven losing bids in both lead (3) and supporting (4) categories. Horton Foote also had a successful career in the early days of television. His adaptation of the William Faulkner story "Old Man" for "Playhouse 90" earned him an emmy nod in 1959. He lost to James Costigan for his original teleplay "Little Moon of alban." However, he did win an emmy award for the 1997 "Hallmark Hall of Fame" remake as well as the HumAnitas prize. among his other laurels, Foote also won the WGa award for each of his Oscar-winning screenplays. and he won the Indie Spirit award for his "Bountiful" script.
- Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary
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below is a list of Horton Foote's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
1918 Actor, The Blind Date Carpetbagger's Children, The Chase, The Coffin in Egypt, A Convicts Courtship Cousins Dancers, The Day Emily Married, The Dearest Of Friends, The Death Of Papa, The Death Of the Old Man, The Dividing the Estate Getting Frankie Married-And Afterwards Gone With the Wind Habitations Of Dragons John Turner Davis Land Of the Astronauts, The Last Of the Thorntons, The Laura Dennis Lily Dale Man Who Climbed the Pecan Trees, The Midnight Caller Night Seasons Nightingale, A Oil Well, The Old Beginning, The Old Friends, The One-Armed Man, The Orphans' Home Cycle, The Prisoner's Song, The Road To the Graveyard, The Roads To Home Roots In A Parched Ground Spring Dance Talking Pictures Tears Of My Sister, The Tomorrow Travelling Lady, The Trip To Bountiful, The Valentine's Day Vernon Early Widow Claire, The Young Lady Of Property, A Young Man From Atlanta, The1918
Synopsis:
Having been exempted from military service in World War I, Horace Robedeaux is back home in Harrison, Texas. He and his wife Elizabeth, along with their infant daughter, are now settled in a new house built for them by Elizabeth's father, Mr. Vaughn. While their fortunes have improved, the nation reels from a spreading flu epidemic which soon reaches Harrison and infects Mr. Vaughn and Horace. During Horace's illness his daughter also contracts the flu and dies bringing to the young parents a sadness which even the armistice can do little to allay. In time Elizabeth becomes pregnant again, and the play ends with brightening prospects for all: the nation is finally at peace; Horace and Elizabeth are blessed with a healthy baby boy; and even Elizabeth's wayward younger brother, who had been of deep concern for Mr. Vaughn, shows signs of finally coming to terms with the responsibilities of adulthood.
Notes:
another component of the nine-play cycle entitled "the Orphan's Home." Produced both As A play And As A major motion picture, 1918 expands still further the playwright's close examination of the saga of the Robedaux family of Harrison, Texas, And, in part
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageActor, The
Synopsis:
set against the Texan depression and telling of Horace Jnr's passion of becoming an actor
Notes:
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1st Produced:
National, London 2002
Organisations:
In Yer Space
1st Published:
Contained in: "Blind Date and the actor" published by Dramatists Play Service 2007 978-0822221265
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBlind Date
Synopsis:
the setting is the living room of Robert and Dolores Henry's home in Harrison, Texas; the time 1929. Dolores, once a high-school beauty queen, is now the scourge of her hen-pecked husband, who comes home from the office hungry and tired to find that there will be no dinner tonight. the reason is that Dolores has, at last, been able to arrange a date for her visiting niece, Sarah Nancy, and she wants Robert out of the way. But the young man, a would-be mortician goes out the window as the bookish, rebellious Sarah Nancy refuses to play the flirtation game and, instead, makes it abundantly (and hilariously) clear that she considers Felix to be a boring oaf. Sarah Nancy's attitude delights her uncle as much as it distresses her aunt, who retires from the field with a sudden sick headache. However, the two young people, left alone by their nosy elders, find a common interest at last-and, as the curtain falls, they are contentedly, and wordlessly, pouring over a stack of wonderfully corny old high-school yearbooks.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York 1986
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1986 -
Music:
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Genre:
Comedy One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCarpetbagger's Children, The
Synopsis:
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, Cornelia, Grace anne and Sissie. With echoes of the Three Sisters and King Lear, the CaRPeTBaGGeR's CHILDReN explores the bonds of a family to the land that has shaped their identity, influenced their destiny and, like the family itself, undergone Dramatic change with the passage of time.
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
95 min Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageChase, The
Synopsis:
Sheriff Hawes, honest and sincere peace officer, wearied with his job and its usual run of irritating problems, such as runaway boys, small robberies and the like, is making plans for his retirement. a local boy, Bubber Reeves, escapes from the penitentiary where he is serving a life term. He heads for his hometown, obsessed with the idea of killing Hawes who has become for him the symbol of all he hates. the town is terrified of Bubber and wants him killed. Hawes is determined to take him alive and send him back to the penitentiary. eventually Hawes traces Bubber to a cabin, but Bubber does not want to be captured and forces Hawes to kill him. Heartbroken over his failure, Hawes goes back to the jail to resign immediately, but his wife convinces him that he is needed in his job, and he decides to continue.
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCoffin in Egypt, A
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2015) 978-0822232407
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageConvicts
Synopsis:
the recently orphaned Horace Robedaux is determined to buy a headstone for his fathers grave. He goes to work on Soll Gautiers isolated prison farm but soon discovers that his ill and senile employer is frightfully paranoid among the convict laborers who outnumber him.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 978-0822225430
Music:
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCourtship
Synopsis:
as gentle and warm as the spring night in which it takes place, the play is a mosaic of conversations and encounters that occur during a party at the home of a well-to-do family in Harrison, Texas in 1914. the Vaughns are substantial, God-fearing folk who expect their children to accept their standards, which sometimes seem unreasonable and oppressive to their lovely, romantically inclined daughter, Elizabeth. Secretly engaged to the rather rakish Horace Robedaux, Elizabeth announces her determination to break free, despite her parents' objections, and as she and her sister gossip about the others present, it is soon apparent that their elders are not always their betters and that the previous generation is often guilty of the very sins against which they warn their offspring. But, as the play ends, Elizabeth, while still restless, is not yet quite bold enough to really defy her parents-and to challenge the powerful but reassuring restraints that the times and a way of life have bequeathed to her and her contemporaries.
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCousins
Synopsis:
It is 1925. Horace and his wife, Elizabeth, have two sons, and Horace is making a modest living as proprietor of his own clothing store. Called to Houston due to his mother's sudden illness and impending surgery, Horace and Elizabeth and other relatives, converge on the hospital waiting room. the action of the play then delves into developments in other branches of the clan. Horace's sister, Lily Dale, has married well and is now a mother, as well as mistress of a large house replete with a baby grand piano in the parlor and two Packards in the garage. Spoiled as ever, she also has ambitions for a musical career-success in which has been predicted by a fortune teller. Cousin Lola and her husband, Monty, relate how Horace turned down a chance at a fortune in an oil prospecting deal-an opportunity which has enabled them to plan a grand tour of europe. after Corella, Horace's mother, pulls through her surgery successfully, they all disperse, only to meet again during a surprise visit to Horace's store in Harrison several months later. Lily Dale has been cheated out of $2000 by an unscrupulous music publisher, who promised her fame and fortune; and Lola and Monty, just returned from their trip, are all too glad to be home, having found europe to be a place full of "four-flushers." the play ends on a poignant note, with Horace and Elizabeth sharing memories with a tipsy, ne'er-do-well cousin. and we become aware that Horace has found a stability within himself and his marriage which will hold him steady for the future, in contrast to the dissolute cousin-who is a reminder of earlier, and less happy periods, in Horace's own life.
Notes:
One of the later plays included in "the Orphan's Home," A nine play cycle which chronicles the lives of the Robedaux family of Harrison, Texas. While maintaining the story of Horace Robedaux As its central theme, COUSINS develops the scope of the saga by
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Grove Press, New York, 1989 -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDancers, The
Synopsis:
Horace, a boy of sixteen, is visiting his sister who has arranged a date for him with emily Crews, the prettiest and most popular girl in town. the date is for a dance-but Horace claims that he doesn't know how to dance. His sister coaches him a little, persuades him he'll do very well, and goes off to call for emily. and in emily's living room, waiting for her to appear, he discovers that emily is being forced by her mother to go to the dance with him; and in great humiliation he leaves. He finds himself in a soda fountain where he meets Mary Catherine, a young girl who, like Horace, lacks confidence and so cripples her own considerable abilities and attractiveness. the two lonely young people are drawn to each other. Horace asks Mary Catherine to another dance, but at the same time his sister and emily's mother again arrange for Horace to escort emily, this time with emily's cooperation, because she's unhappy about the way she treated Horace. But Horace stands firm; he's asked Mary Catherine, he wants to take Mary Catherine and he will. and he does. as Horace and Mary Catherine are about to leave for the dance they admit to each other their fears of not being good enough dancers, of not being popular-but, secure in the knowledge of one another's liking and respect, they start off for their first dance with more confidence and happiness than they've ever felt before.
Notes:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDay Emily Married, The
Synopsis:
In Foote's mythical small town of Harrison, Texas, newlyweds Richard and Emily move in with the bride's elderly and anxious parents, Lee and Lyd Davis. Richard seems like the ideal husband for Emily, whose first marriage ended in a sad divorce. When Richard shows himself to be greedy and untrustworthy, tensions in the already-strained family threaten to cleave parents from child.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
59E59 Theatre, New York 03 Aug 2004
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2015) 978-0822231349
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDearest Of Friends, The
Synopsis:
In the DeaReST OF FRIeNDS, it is several months later, and Vonnie is facing the crisis of a husband who is involved with another woman and who wants a divorce. Mabel and her husband, Jack are sympathetic to Vonnie's plight but, again, cannot bring themselves to face its disturbing implications.
Notes:
part of the Roads To Home
1st Produced:
New York 1982
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1982 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDeath Of Papa, The
Synopsis:
the play begins by introducing the next generation of Robedauxs in the person of Horace's son, Horace Jr., who comes home from school to find that his maternal grandfather, Henry Vaughn, has died suddenly of a heart attack. From this point, two main storylines are traced in the play. One deals with young Horace's coming to terms with the concepts of life, death and familial relationships. He finds that his mother, Elizabeth, is expecting another baby; he listens to, and asks many questions about, the widely contrasting accounts of his two grandfathers; and he endures the fussing of his paternal grandmother, who's fearful that his love of reading will make him too introspective and "ruin him" for the real world. He must also come to grips with the drowning of Gertrude, a young black girl who was his confidante and friend. the other storyline concerns "Brother" Vaughn, Henry Vaughn's dissolute son, who, in the short time during which he has control, heads his late father's farms and other holdings on a course toward rapid ruin. When his mother takes back control of the estate, Brother heads off to Galveston, where he subsequently kills a man in a drunken brawl. Through all of this, Horace Sr. maintains his own counsel, although he stands up to his mother concerning his son's love of reading, and he comforts his wife, Elizabeth, through the crises affecting her family. But he refrains, even when asked, from interfering in the family's affairs and, as the play ends, the suggestion is strong that things are subtly, but inexorably, beginning to flow his way.
Notes:
One of the final works in the nine play cycle entitled "the Orphan's Home," which follows the lives of the Robedaux family of Harrison, Texas. Others in the cycle include Lily Dale, Courtship, Roots in A Parched Ground, the Widow claire, Valentine's Day,
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 7 Other: 1b
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDeath Of the Old Man, The
Synopsis:
It is a simple story, chiefly one of mood and character in which the protagonist is an old man who lies dying and worrying about what will happen to the daughter who has cared for him. His other children, for whom he sacrificed so much, have now left home and have their own lives, which they will not alter to include any provision for their sister. then a distant cousin, whom the old man had helped in past years, comes and offers the daughter a home with her on the place which the old man had helped her to buy. the daughter is provided for and the gentle old man can die peacefully.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDividing the Estate
Synopsis:
a 12-character human comedy about a family that must confront its past as it prepares for its future
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Princeton, New Jersey 1989
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2010 978-0822223986
Music:
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 9 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGetting Frankie Married-And Afterwards
Synopsis:
Frankie, a traditional girl from a traditional town, has been leading an untraditional life. For over twenty years she has been Fred's girlfriend, and though she longs to be married, Fred has never asked-until now. Why the change of heart? Fred's mother may be dying, and she would like to see her son married before she goes. But that's only part of the reason. there's the other embarrassing matter of another woman, a younger woman, who is suing Fred because she claims to have quit her job after Fred proposed to her. as if that weren't trouble enough, both Frankie and the other woman will be having Fred's child.
Notes:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 8 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGone With the Wind
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
London 1972
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHabitations Of Dragons
Synopsis:
It's 1935 in Harrison, Texas. George Tolliver has decided to run for county attorney general, but his older, and more successful, brother Leonard tries to dissuade him because the family's backing has already gone to another local lawyer, his brother-in-law, Billy. George runs, though, after lashing out at the more successful Leonard for less than moral support in the past. at the same time, their late father's brother Virgil appears on the Tolliver family's doorstep, asking for shelter now that he's old and broke. It's a hard decision for the widowed Mrs. Tolliver since Virgil once abandoned them years ago when they needed money; still, they take him in. Within days, Leonard's wife Margaret is found out to be having an affair with Wally Smith, her husband's handyman. On the very same afternoon, both of Margaret and Leonard's young boys drown while swimming in the river with Wally. Believing this to be a punishment for her adultery, Margaret has a breakdown and is institutionalized. In his grief, Leonard lets his law practice crumble and in despair reveals to his mother that he's always known his Father committed suicide and did not die accidentally. Things aren't made any easier when Margaret's brother, Billy, murders his sister's lover. . .and now a neighbor wants to blackmail the Tollivers with a packet of love letters sent from Margaret to Wally Smith. eventually, Margaret returns home to beg her husband's forgiveness. at first Leonard refuses, but he realizes he does want to start over again and he forgives Margaret before she shoots herself with the gun Leonard was going to use on himself. George, having had to make up for Leonard's absence, has rediscovered his calling as a lawyer and has finally risen to the responsibilities of his own new marriage, impending fatherhood and leading the sorrowful Tolliver household.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Pittsburgh 1988
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 14 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageJohn Turner Davis
Synopsis:
a tender story of a kindly, childless couple who become interested in a boy whose aunt and uncle, migrant workers, have deserted him. Though the boy, John Turner, yearns for the return of his relatives, he comes to accept the fact that they have indeed left him behind, and turns to the couple who have befriended him and finds a permanent home with them.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Philco Television Playhouse -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 4 Other: extras
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLand Of the Astronauts, The
Synopsis:
In the LaND OF the aSTRONaUTS Phil, who always wanted to be an astronaut, finally heads to Houston to try and find a job with the space station, just to be near the astronauts. His wife Lorena realizes something is wrong when, back at their home in Harrison, there is no word from Phil right before the long-awaited tap dance recital in which their young daughter, Mabel Sue, will dance. Lorena begins her search in Harrison, and with the help of good neighbors and off-beat lawmen and women, finds Phil wandering around Houston, preparing to go into space, but really half-crazed over his own failures. Taking him home, Lorena helps Phil find his mythical utopian land in his home and family.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 10 Female: 8 Other: flexible
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLast Of the Thorntons, The
Synopsis:
Not only does town busybody Fannie Mae bring medication to the residents of a nursing home in Harrison, Texas, she also brings the gift of gab and a thorough command of local knowledge, useful among folks who are inclined to forget the years of their births or their religion. Her conversation starters allow the home's residents to swap stories and reminisce about their lives, revealing rich and complex histories that both burden and sustain them in the present. Like a piece of Mozartian chamber music, the LaST OF the THORNTONS carries you along with droll humor to a conclusion that resonates with gorgeous poignancy.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Comedy/Drama Comedy
Parts:
Male: 15 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLaura Dennis
Synopsis:
Laura Dennis lives with Lena abernathy in Harrison, Texas. Her mother left Harrison years ago, after her Father killed his cousin then died when Laura was very young. Writing to her mother, who now lives in far away South Dakota, Laura is convinced that once her mother realizes how grown up and ready for the world Laura is, she will want Laura to visit, or better yet, come live with her. Laura's uncle comes to visit once in a while, supplying the much needed money for Laura's upbringing and trying to care the best he can though he really doesn't want to be a big part of her life. Laura loves her home in Harrison and the woman who cares for her, but is restless. a high school senior, she is discovering herself, her burgeoning sexuality and wondering about life ahead; all these things are confusing and exciting. a polite, sweet girl, Laura also hears stories about her family's past: why her mother left and her Father killed a man. She discovers an acquaintance across the street, Velma, is really a distant cousin, which both intrigues and repels her as Velma is a dependent, sometimes raving alcoholic, yet she may know the history of her family no one else will tell her. Over the course of several weeks, while Laura waits for an answer from her mother, she learns of her mother's infidelities and her father's jealousies. Parallel lives and stories also fill Laura's world as she begins dating Stewart, who abruptly drops her to go to visit his old girlfriend who has moved to Atlanta. another classmate, Harvey, seems also involved with that girl when he is accused of making her pregnant; the reason she moved away. Denying he is the Father and revealing any number of the boys could have been, he is forbidden out of the house since the girl's Father has threatened to kill him. a quiet, sensitive boy, Harvey has expressed interest in Laura and wanted to ask her to the school dance. He is forbidden to do so, not because of past indiscretions or present threats, but because, as finally revealed to him by his adoptive parents, he is Laura's half-brother by her mother and her father's cousin, the one her Father killed. Shaken by all that's happened to him Harvey disobeys his parents and takes a walk in town. In front of the movie house he is shot and killed by the pregnant girl's father. Laura hears the news about Harvey's death and her connection to him, just after she receives a letter from her mother saying she wants nothing to do with her. Feeling she lost her mother, and a brother she never knew well, Laura is devastated. Yet, she tries to find something in the day to sustain her. She accepts what help she can get from those who love her through what is now a crossroads in her young, now saddened life.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 8 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLily Dale
Synopsis:
after the death of his alcoholic father, and his mother's remarriage, young Horace Robedaux remained in Harrison, Texas, clerking in a dry goods store. When his mother invites him to visit her and his teenage sister, Lily, in Houston, Horace eagerly accepts, hoping to resettle and find more promising employment. Once in Houston, Horace is confronted by his gruff, surly stepfather, who dotes on his spoiled sister, Lily, but dislikes Horace intensely-and shortly orders him to leave. Horace's departure, however, is delayed by a sudden bout of illness, which forces him to stay on for several weeks as an invalid. This gives him the chance to reestablish his relationship with his sister, whose memories of their late Father are as bitter as Horace's are forgiving. In the end Horace returns to Harrison, convinced that during his brief stay the demons of the family's past have been exorcised and that he, as well as his mother and sister, can now face the future with a renewed strength of spirit.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York 1986
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Grove Press, New York, 1988 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMan Who Climbed the Pecan Trees, The
Synopsis:
the character of the title is Stanley Campbell, publisher of the local newspaper in Harrison, Texas, who has taken to climbing the pecan trees in the Courthouse Square when he is in his cups-which, of late, is most of the time. He also makes threatening phone calls to his brother-in-law, whom he suspects of having an affair with his wife and to a former family friend who embezzled the Campbell inheritance. His antics are borne patiently by his cheerfully resigned mother (who clings pathetically to the belief that there is still much to be thankful for and that her children are well and happy) and by his brother (who holds himself responsible for the loss of the family fortune). However Stanley's wife, Bertie Dee, has had enough of his accusations and drunkenness and has taken to locking him out of the house. and, throughout the play, it is evident that the malaise which grips the nation (the Great Depression of the 1930s) has not spared Texas nor the Campbell family, and while the rich, down-home dialogue of the play abounds in trenchant humor and revealing reminiscences the underlying sense of pain and discouragement shadows all that is said and done-as these are people for whom early promise has given way to defeat and disillusionment and the unsettling realization that they are helpless to reverse their fate.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre 1988
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1989 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comedy/Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageMidnight Caller
Synopsis:
the play is set in a boarding house in a small town on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Three unmarried women, alma Jean, Cutie and Miss Rowena, have lived there for years, watching the life of the town. Helen Crews, after a disagreement with her mother, also moves in; Helen had been engaged to Harvey Weems, a charming but weak young man, and the two mothers had managed to break off the engagement. Now Harvey, in love with Helen, but not strong enough to defy his mother, comes every night to Helen's window to call her name. Ralph Johnston, an attractive young man, has just moved to town, and into the boarding house, where he becomes very much interested in Helen. Thanks to Ralph's love, Helen is at last able to leave the town and go off to a happy life of her own and marriage, and Harvey, the midnight caller, is left behind, still calling for her.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageNight Seasons
Synopsis:
the play takes place in Harrison, Texas, jumping back and forth between 1923 to 1963. Following the Weems family as it grows up, we watch its members find their places in society. Of the main characters: Mr. Weems is a banker with a heart. He cannot easily stand up against his wife, but puts money away for his daughter, Laura Lee, to do with as she wishes, knowing everyone tries to run her life. Mrs. Weems is a busybody who can't see how emotions guide people's decisions so she thwarts them by interaction or ignorance. their son, Sherman, grows up to be the banker his Father never was-a banker who is doesn't consider another person when it comes to money. He is in a bitter marriage, but won't leave because his wife has threatened to expose his adultery, thereby threatening his career. Laura Lee only wants to love, and to get away from her family, mostly her mother. On bad advice, Laura Lee never married, and though she doesn't live in regret, she feels the loss of the two men she loved. as an adult all she wants now is a house, but everything she tries, everywhere she turns, she is told no; money comes first and she has no control over her own finances. In an almost final blow, her brother Sherman sells the house she wants to another buyer because the price was, in his opinion, too high for Laura Lee, but not for his other buyer, who got for an even lower price. Laura Lee had the money, and asked Sherman to arrange the sale through the bank, but her family has always sabotaged chances for independence, especially where money was involved, and this time was no different. at the age of 60, Laura lives in an apartment with her mother, bitterly agreeing to live there until she can find a house for them both. When she learns her brother and mother agree that two old women should not move into a house, Laura collapses and soon dies. Mrs. Weems, at 93, finally, has an inkling of what her life has been when she says that living that long is her punishment. What's left of the Weems family seems to fade into the landscape.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageNightingale, A
Synopsis:
In a NIGHTINGaLe, Mabel, and Vonnie, two Houston neighbors and best friends, both refugees from small Texas towns, are forbearing and patient about the protracted and uninvited visits of annie Long, a girlhood acquaintance of Mabel's who is slipping inexorably into sanity. as uncomfortable as she makes them, Mabel and Vonnie are more concerned with silencing annie's vivid recounting of old scandals and the pain they caused.
Notes:
part of the Roads To Home
1st Produced:
New York 1982
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1982 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOil Well, The
Synopsis:
Will Thornton, a life-long farmer in Texas, has always lived with the dream of some day finding oil on his land. Now it seems his dream is coming true-suddenly local real estate men are rushing in to buy his land, oil men from out of town want to take leases on it, and Will and his two children are ready to forget all about the day to day requirements of planting and harvesting a crop. Only Mrs. Thornton remains aloof and unimpressed by all the excitement. She wants Will to have his oil well, but they've been disappointed too many times before and she knows that only the land and a crop in the land can be counted on to feed them and keep a roof over their heads. Will loses an opportunity to sell the mineral rights on the land; and takes a lease. the well is about to be drilled, neighbors and relations for miles around have arrived and all the Thorntons are caught up in the excitement of planning what they'll do when the well comes in. Will, who has been able to do so little of all he'd wanted for his wife and children, at last sees a chance of giving them everything they'd never had. But the well comes in dry and only Mrs. Thornton's love and faith in him can sustain him through the bitter disappointment.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOld Beginning, The
Synopsis:
Deals with the relationship between a domineering Father and Tommy, his son, who loves his Father but must break away from him in order to give his own personality a chance to develop. the Father is well-meaning enough, but refuses to acknowledge that his son is a grown man, capable of making his own decisions. at the climax of the play, Tommy almost gives in and returns to his Father to live and work, but realizes beyond doubt that it would only be the same thing all over again; he must go off on his own until the time his Father will come to realize that he is right in what he is doing.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOld Friends, The
Synopsis:
In this World Premiere play by Signature Legacy Playwright Horton Foote, matriarch Mamie Borden and the remaining members of two longtime Texas farming families await a visit from Mamie's son Hugo and his wife Sybil. When Sybil arrives with alarming news, old friends on opposing sides must confront the issues surrounding legacy, loyalty, and the meaning of happiness that have hounded them for generations.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
The Pershing Square Signature Center/Irene Diamond Stage, 480 West 42nd Street, NYC 20 Aug 2013
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2015) 978-0-8222-3132-5
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOne-Armed Man, The
Synopsis:
When McHenry, the ONe-aRMeD MaN, comes back to his old job to reclaim his arm lost in an accident, his old boss, C.W. is unsympathetic. the accountant, Pinky, tries to convey just how serious McHenry is, but only when McHenry shows C.W. the loaded gun, and then shoots him, do we all know how far he will go to become whole again
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageOrphans' Home Cycle, The
Synopsis:
Set in Horton Foote's fictitious town of Harrison, Texas and based partly on the childhood of Foote's Father and the courtship and marriage of his parents, the Orphans' Home Cycle is a wide-ranging, intricate work that spans the lives of three families over three decades. all actors in the production will be playing multiple roles and several will track their characters through time in the various plays which comprise the Cycle. the Orphans' Home Cycle begins with a father's death in a small Texas town at the turn of the century, a loss that sends his son, Horace Robedaux, on an odyssey through the darkest corners of the heart as he learns to become a husband, Father and patriarch
- press release
- press release
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Signature At Peter Norton Space, NY 05 Nov 2009
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 14 Female: 8 Other: with doubling
Further Reference:
-
Top of PagePrisoner's Song, The
Synopsis:
In the PRISONeR's SONG, Mae tries to boost the confidence of her out-of-work husband John, while he waits for the "right" job. Finally admitting he can't support them, he realizes he must take what is offered from an old friend of Mae's family, whose grief over the death of his daughter masks his own understanding of the hardships around him
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageRoad To the Graveyard, The
Synopsis:
the place is a small town in Texas, the time 1939, shortly before the onset of World War II. India, a spinster who is resigned to the task of caring for her aging, and increasingly senile, parents, is hopeful that her weak-willed brother, Sonny, who holds a menial job at the local movie house, will seize the opportunity to open his own theatre, a prospect which could bring the family the security she so desperately longs for. But Sonny, indecisive as always, is fearful of striking out on his own and is resigned, instead, to settling for marriage with an older woman deemed unsuitable by the family. In a series of subtle, deeply affecting scenes, we come to learn the elements of India's disaffection; her concern for her failing parents; her impatience with her gossipy lifelong friend and fellow spinster, Lyda, whose existence has become as sterile as her own; and her disappointment with the feckless Sonny, who seems unable to take hold of his own destiny, much less assume the responsibility for the fate of others. In the end the play is a moving study of loss and desperation, and of decent, well-intentioned people who must stand by helplessly while a way of life is forfeited to a changing order which they are unable to fully comprehend or accommodate.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
New York 1985
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1988 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageRoads To Home
Synopsis:
In the first play, a NIGHTINGaLe, Mabel and Vonnie, two Houston neighbors and best friends, both refugees from small Texas towns, are forbearing and patient about the protracted and uninvited visits of annie Long, a girlhood acquaintance of Mabel's who is slipping inexorably into insanity. as uncomfortable as she makes them, Mabel and Vonnie are more concerned with silencing annie's vivid recounting of old scandals and the pain they caused. (1 man, 3 women). In the second play, the DeaReST OF FRIeNDS, it is several months later, and Vonnie is facing the crisis of a husband who is involved with another woman and who wants a divorce. Mabel and her husband, Jack, are sympathetic to Vonnie's plight but, again, cannot bring themselves to face its disturbing implications. (2 men, 2 women). In the third play, SPRING DaNCe, several years have passed, and annie is now confined to a sanatorium. She and her fellow patients are scrupulously polite and considerate of each other and, obviously, totally divorced from reality. the asylum culture reflects the larger culture-but here the isolation is total and sadly irreversible.(3 men, 1 woman).
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Three Related Short Plays
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageRoots In A Parched Ground
Synopsis:
the Robedaux family has been divided by the exigencies of an unhappy fate. Julie Robedaux has moved back to her family's house with the children, Horace, Jr. and Beth Ruth, and has enlisted the help of her sister, Callie, in trying to operate the old place as a boarding house. Her husband, Horace Sr., ravaged by alcohol and disease, awaits the end of his wasted life at his mother's home, pathetically hopeful that he will still be able to make amends to his wife and children, and guide his son in the study of law. This fragile strand of hope is broken when it is acknowledged that the boarding house is a losing proposition, and that the only course of action for Julia, Callie and the children is to move to Houston in search of work. Horace Jr. refuses to go. as a violent storm breaks he rushes off, and when he eventually comes home again, after having been given up for lost, the family has gone to Houston and his Father is dead. When she learns that he is still alive, Horace's mother comes back from Houston and, in a poignant, touching scene, tells the boy that she has remarried, and that she can't ask him to come back with her, at least for the present. Horace stays behind and starts over again. He also has his father's law books, and the gentle guidance and concern of a family friend, Jim Howard, in turning back to them. the play ends on a warm note of hopefulness as Horace and Mr. Howard begin to study-and to help each other find a way in the long night of loneliness.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 5 Other: 1b 1g
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSpring Dance
Synopsis:
In SPRING DaNCe, several years have passed, and annie is now confined to a sanatorium. She and her fellow patients are scrupulously polite and considerate of each other and, obviously, totally divorced from reality. the asylum culture reflects the larger culture-but here the isolation is total and, sadly irreversible
Notes:
part of the Roads To Home
1st Produced:
New York 1982
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1982 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTalking Pictures
Synopsis:
1929, Harrison Texas. Myra Tolliver makes her living playing the live music for the silent pictures. She makes barely enough to survive, caring for herself and her teenage son, Pete. as borders in the home of the Jacksons, Myra supplements her rent by giving piano lessons to the Jackson's two daughters. Mr. Jackson is a railroad man who, during the course of the play, is bumped from his engineer's position stationed in Harrison, to one stationed elsewhere, and bumped back again. they'll stay in Harrison, meaning Myra and Pete can stay; that is if Myra can continue to find work since talkies are about to take over the town picture show and Myra won't be needed anymore. Myra knows her means of making a living is at an end, and that her prospects are dim, but she is willing to do almost anything to keep her and Pete going. While trying so hard to provide for her son, his father, Gerard, keeps trying to lure Pete away from Myra to live with him. Changing girlfriends, jobs and being a showoff, Gerard doesn't know anything about bringing up their son, but Myra doesn't realize how much Pete believes his father's promises of a better life. Through all this, Myra is courted by Willis, a bricklayer abandoned by his wife five years earlier. Smitten with Myra, everyone knows Willis will soon ask her to marry him. Though taken with Willis, Myra may not be in love with him. He will be a good provider though, and a kind, loving companion, so when he does ask Myra to marry him, she accepts. Pete announces he will go to live with his father, nearly breaking Myra's heart. She won't stop him though, for fear he will hate her. Yet when Gerard casually announces he is married again and he is postponing Pete's move, Pete knows things will never turn out the way he wanted. Myra, now happy Pete is staying with her, faces a hard life since the talkies have come to Harrison. around them, the Jackson girls learn music from Myra and listen to the stories of a young preacher boy their own age who will travel back to his native Mexico, leaving the girls with dreams of running away to that exotic land. Willis' ex-wife shows up too, running away from an abusive boyfriend, hoping Willis will take her back to shield her. Through it all, Myra and Willis quietly carve out a place for themselves and what will be a new era.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Florida 1990
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTears Of My Sister, The
Synopsis:
the TeaRS OF MY SISTeR follows Cecilia as she watches her sister Bessie try, and fail, to avoid marrying a man she doesn't love. Both young girls come of age in their own way as they learn that life is not always fair.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTomorrow
Synopsis:
In a rural area of the deep south, the action begins with the arrival of a young lawyer who has just tried, and lost, his first case. His client killed a young man who wanted to run off with his daughter; when they young man drew a gun, the girl's Father killed him. To most of the jurors the killing was clearly justified, but one man, Jackson Fentry, voted against acquittal, hanging the jury. Convinced that the reason for Fentry's action must lie outside the immediate facts of the case, the lawyer comes to talk to the Fentry's neighbors, and the story they tell him becomes the continuing action of the play. It turns out that Fentry happened upon a young woman in her eighth month of pregnancy as, in a sickly and weakened state, she left home where her Father and brothers disowned her and her husband left her. Fentry cares for her and is with her when she gives birth to a baby boy. He marries her just before she dies, and promises to raise the boy as his own. Knowing the girl's kin might one day find out about the boy and claim him, Fentry never lets the boy leave his side. When the boy turns three, however, the brothers of the young girl find Jackson and forcibly take the boy away. Heartbroken, Jackson leaves his family farm without a word, leaving his Father to work it alone, for 10 years. When Jackson returns, he hears word of the boy, now going under a different name and with a reputation of reckless and indifferent, the opposite of how Jackson tried to raise him. One day, he even observes the boy in town and sees a wild, selfish young man who no longer recognizes his first father. even so, when the boy is killed by the girl's father, Jackson, still believing the little boy he raised was deep inside, does not acquit the man who killed him.
Notes:
adapted from A short story by William Faulkner
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 15 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTravelling Lady, The
Synopsis:
the story is set in a small town in Texas. Georgette Thomas and her small daughter arrive, looking for Georgette's husband who, she believes, has just been released from the penitentiary. as she later learns, he has in fact been free for some time. During the six years of his imprisonment, Georgette had worked and saved to obtain the money to help her husband get out of prison, and now she is here to join him. Slim, who had an unhappy marriage, becomes very fond of Georgette and the little girl, and feels considerable concern over their plight. When Georgette's husband finally appears, he deserts his wife and child again almost immediately; he robs his present employer, who had befriended him, and makes a calculated attempt to leave town. as he is captured, Georgette realizes that she can never look to her husband for the love and support she had hoped for, and at the end she knows she will turn to Slim, who already loves her.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- 1954
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTrip To Bountiful, The
Synopsis:
This is the poignant story of Mrs. Watts, an aging widow living with her son and daughter-in-law in a three-room flat in Houston, Texas. Fearing that her presence may be an imposition on others, and chafing under the rigid and selfish supervision of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Watts imagines that if she can get away and return to her old home in the town of Bountiful, she is sure to regain her strength, dignity and peace of mind. So she attempts to run away, and when she reaches a bus station on the last part of her short journey, she falls into the hands of a sheriff whom her son and daughter-in-law have put on her trail. the sheriff, a kindly fellow, allows her to complete the final stage of her journey, so she proceeds to Bountiful and makes a lonely pilgrimage to the scene of her old home. Only too soon she learns that the friends of her youth have all died or scattered, and her home is no longer the spacious mansion of her memories but a crumbling wreck. But she has the supreme satisfaction of plunging her hands into the strength-giving earth, and this leaves her with a sense of that strength and dignity that will give her the courage to survive. When her son and daughter-in-law appear on the scene to take her back to Houston, she consents to return quietly, secure in the knowledge that the remainder of her existence will be enriched as a result of her last contact with Bountiful.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
- 1953
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 3 Other: extras
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageValentine's Day
Synopsis:
the time is Christmas eve, 1917, America is caught in the toils of World War I. Horace Robedaux and Elizabeth Vaughn, having married despite the objections of her parents, have rented rooms in the Pate house as they await the arrival of their firstborn. But the Pate house inhabitants prove to be more trouble than the young couple could have imagined. Bobby Pate, his wife having left him, has turned to drink; the eccentric George Tyler, heretofore a respected member of the community, is showing signs of a mental breakdown; and Elizabeth's younger brother is proving increasingly to be a disappointment to their rigid, success-oriented father. In the spirit of Christmas, however, Elizabeth's parents unbend and seek a reconciliation with the newlyweds, as Mr. Vaughn is prepared to build the young couple a home of their own. as the play ends, Horace and Elizabeth anticipate the birth of their baby with renewed hope for the future, and with spirits dampened by the tragic suicide of George Tyler and the continuing shadow of the Great War.
Notes:
Part of A nine play cycle (including Lily Dale, Courtship, Roots in A Parched Ground, the Widow Claire And 1918 which chronicles the fortunes of the Robedaux family of Harrison, Texas, in the 1900s.
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageVernon Early
Synopsis:
VeRNON eaRLY revisits American life in Horton Foote's fictional town of Harrison, Texas, during the 1950s. the title character, Vernon, is a doctor, in the days when the house call was commonplace. Consumed by his work, his spirit has been eroded by the pressures of his job and the lingering depression he shares with his wife, Mildred, over the loss of their adopted child to its birth mother. Mirroring the tragic existence of the earlys, many of Harrison's other residents are also consumed with the self-inflicted wounds of life: aging, individual isolation, love, and racial inequality. Through all of the bleakness of life there still shines a glimmer of hope reflected in the spirit of the town's sad doctor: Vernon early.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 7 Other: 1b 1g
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageWidow Claire, The
Synopsis:
after returning to Harrison, Texas, from his disastrous visit with his mother and sister (and his new stepfather) in Houston, Horace Robedaux has moved into a local boarding house prior to returning to Houston to take a six week business course. During his brief stay at home he falls suddenly and passionately in love with an attractive but rather self-centered young widow, Claire, who, as it happens, already has several suitors, not to mention two rather overactive small children. From the first it is apparent that Horace's hopes are futile, and the other boarders-mostly cigar smoking, poker players-take delight in ribbing Horace about the Widow Claire's "reputation" and the mischief he can expect from her captious offspring. their warnings prove to be all too true, and the gentle Horace is even drawn by the widow's young son into a disastrous (for him) fistfight with another of her suitors. as the play ends Horace is reconciled to yet another defeat in his young life, and prepares to depart for Houston a sadder but, hopefully, wiser person. and the audience is left with a haunting, eloquent evocation of a time and place where life may have seemed simpler but was, in truth, as filled with compromises, disappointments and the need for strength of mind and spirit as our own more
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York 1986
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Grove Press, New York, 1988 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageYoung Lady Of Property, A
Synopsis:
Wilma, a lonely girl of fifteen, lives with her aunt. Her mother is dead, and her father, who is weak and not too reliable, goes out with a Mrs. Leighton, a woman of whom the town disapproves. In a wistful moment Wilma confesses to her best friend that what she really wants more than anything else is to live again with her Father in the house her mother left her, and since she knows that will never happen, she would like to marry in a few years and live in her house with her husband and children. In the absence of a real family, the house has become everything to her-her whole identity based on this, her one possession, which makes her a young lady of property. Wilma's gentle, happy realization that her real purpose in life is to remain here as a wife and mother in this house she loves is shattered by the news that her Father is planning to marry Mrs. Leighton and to sell Wilma's house. Not only is she losing her father, she is losing the one thing that represents a safe and happy future to her. She dashes out frantically, realizing the only person who can help her now is Mrs. Leighton. and to her great joy she discovers that Mrs. Leighton is a person of warmth and sympathy. She saves Wilma's house for her and helps Wilma realize that her father, after all, has a right to marry again. and Wilma has her house safely again to fill with life so that she need never be lonely.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Drama One act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageYoung Man From Atlanta, The
Synopsis:
In her review of the play, Marian Burkhart explains the story: "In the YOUNG MaN FROM aTLaNTa, a kind of elected ignorance has skewed the past and narrowed the future, for the Kidders, Lily Dale and Will. the two are attempting to cope with the death of their only son, Bill, who, unable to swim, walked into a lake in Florida and drowned. Lily Dale takes refuge in religion. She persuades herself that Bill's death, in spite of its circumstances, was an accident. at the prompting of Randy, the 'Young Man from Atlanta,' who, though he never appears, is nonetheless the catalyst of the play's action, believes as well that her son lived in the faith she herself professes. Will is made of tougher stuff. He acknowledges his son's suicide and wants none of Lily Dale's pseudo-comfort. But he has his own illusions, a belief that a hard-working, competitive, optimistic all-American go-getter like himself can triumph by achieving 'the best and the biggest,' and that the best and the biggest house in Houston, into which he has sunk his savings, can paper over the bitterness of Bill's death. But he discovers that his job, the center of his life and his pride, is no longer his and that his kind of competitiveness cannot get him the bank loan he needs to start his own business. He discovers that his wife has not only communicated with the Young Man, as he has forbidden her to do, but has given Randy some $50,000 to 'tide him over.' This discovery only intensifies the pain of a previous realization that his son gave the Young Man money also. and he discovers the strength and endurance of his own body, which he has trusted as he has trusted his wife, has let him down, too, for he suffers a heart attack. This shattering of his life's facade compels him to realize that his life's core is an illusion. His single-minded pursuit of the American dream has left his wife not only childish but lonely, and it has denied him his son. Will chooses not to ask the Young Man why his son gave him the money. He does not want to know. Will and Lily Dale are reconciled. She will teach music. He will work at the lesser job his former boss offers him, and she will obey him, he hopes, even though she will cling to Randy, who for her, no matter what she now knows, is 'the sweet boy' who comforted her. 'everything will be all right,' Will tells his wife. He will settle for what is merely 'all right' because the 'the best and the biggest' is as empty as the Young Man's lies."
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York 1996
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
American Theatre Magazine, NY - September, 1995 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, theme/character full length
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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