"The Traveling Lady" Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of Horton Foote Production

by Chantal Mendes, Student Newswriter

Baylor University's newly created American Actors Company will perform the 50th anniversary production of Horton Foote's drama, "The Traveling Lady," at 8 p.m. Feb. 27-28 and March 2, 4 and 6 in the Mabee Theater in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center. Matinee performances will begin at 2 p.m. Feb. 29 and March 7.
Professional actors from around the nation have joined director Marion Castleberry, assistant professor of theater arts and director of graduate studies, and the playwright for this exciting venture. Rehearsals are under way, and Foote has been on hand throughout the process providing guidance and rewrites to create a definitive version of the play.
Foote's plot centers around Georgette Thomas and her young daughter as they arrive in a small Texas town in 1954. Georgette has been working hard for the last six years, raising money to help her husband get out of prison. Now she plans to join him and start their family's life anew, but things don't quite work out as she plans.
The anniversary production is being held in conjunction with the first Horton Foote American Playwrights Festival, which will run March 3-6 and will include a wide range of events, including a question/answer session with Foote and anticipated appearances by actors Robert Duvall, Estelle Parsons and Ellen Burstyn
Foote was named Visiting Distinguished Dramatist at Baylor in fall 2002 and has conducted week-long, in-residence classes each semester. He also collaborated with Castleberry, on the newly released book "Horton Foote: Genesis of an American Playwright," a compilation of essays written by the playwright.
Tickets to "A Traveling Lady" are $25 and can be purchased at the Hooper-Schaefer box office. For more information, contact the department of theater arts at 710-1861.