Santa Paula Theater Center kicks off Season 2012
February 03, 2012
Santa Paula News
Santa Paula Theater Center kicks off Season 2012 with “The Trip to Bountiful” by Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winning author Horton Foote.
Performances will be Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. from February 10 through March 18 at the Santa Paula Theater Center, 125 S. 7th Street. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, and $12 for children 12 and under. To order tickets, call the SPTC box office at 805-525-4645 or visit www.santapaulatheatercenter.org.
Critics across the breadth of America have lauded this gem of a play about Carrie Watts, an aging widow who wants to go home. Trapped in a tiny apartment in Houston, she yearns for Bountiful, the Gulf Coast town where she grew up and spent the best years of her life. And — latest pension check in hand — she’s determined to get there, come hell or high water. The journey is filled with frequent humor and a tenderness that’s both heartbreaking and life affirming.
Horton Foote had his first play, Texas Town, produced Off-Broadway in 1941. In a career that spanned 68 years, he had plays produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and at many regional theatres around the country. His plays include “The Last of the Thorntons,” “The Young Man from Atlanta,” “Night Season,” “Laura Dennis,” “Vernon Early,” “The Roads to Home,” “The Carpetbagger’s Children,” “The Day Emily Married,” “The Chase,” “Tomorrow,” “The Habitation of Dragons,” “The Traveling Lady” and “Dividing the Estate.”
He received Academy Awards for his screenplay adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and his original screenplay, “Tender Mercies.” For his 1997 television adaptation of William Faulkner’s “Old Man,” he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing of a Miniseries. He received the Pulitzer Prize and his first Tony nomination for his play “The Young Man From Atlanta.”
In 1995, he was given the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway and the Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award for the 1994-95 Signature Season of his plays. In 1996 he was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2000 he received the National Medal of Arts Award from President Clinton. In 2006 “The Trip to Bountiful” won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival, and Foote was given the Drama Desk Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, his play “Dividing the Estate” won the OBIE Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for its Off-Broadway production. In 2008, the play transferred to Broadway’s Booth Theater under the auspices of Lincoln Center Theater, earning Foote his second Tony nomination for Best Play.
SPTC’s production of “The Trip To Bountiful” is under the direction of Laurie Walters, with Leslie Nichols producing and Suzi Skutley stage-managing. Gary Richardson is the lighting designer, Mike Carnahan designed the sets, and costume design is by Barbara Pedziwiatr.
Taking on the central role of Carrie Watts is Nancy Solomons, with Hugh McManigal as her son Ludie and Kimberly Peters as daughter-in-law Jessie Mae. John F. O’Grady will play the Sheriff, with Kytriena Payseno as Thelma. Rounding out the cast are Bill Spellman, Frank Rabinowitz, Wayne McPhail and Jennifer Skutley.
Season 2012 will continue with “Prelude To A Kiss” by Craig Lucas, directed by James Castle Stevens and running from April 20 through May 27; “The Elephant’s Graveyard” by George Brant, directed by Fred Helsel and David Ralphe, running June 29 through August 5; “A Life In The Theater” by David Mamet, directed by Taylor Kasch, from September 7 through October 14; and “Death Takes A Holiday” by Albert Casella - rewritten by Walter Ferris, with direction by Tom Eubanks, running November 16 through December 23. Season tickets are on sale through March 18, 2012.
