Peninsula Players Theatre will present a reading of "The Trip to Bountiful" by Horton Foote, a moving and riveting story from one of our country's greatest writers, at Björklunden 7p.m., Monday, Feb. 3. The play readings are produced with support and in coordination with Door County Reads and its exploration of "The Memory of Old Jack" by Wendell Berry. Join the Players reading and travel with widow Carrie Watts who yearns to go back to the Gulf Coast town where she grew up and raised her family. Admission is free.
Berry, a noted poet, novelist, farmer and conservationist, is often described as a 21st century Henry David Thoreau. His native Kentucky and its rural values have inspired his more than 40 books.
"Berry is very interested in what urbanization and industrialization have done to our country and its agricultural community," said Players Artistic Director Greg Vinkler. "And he is also involved in conservation, ecology, poetry - a wide variety of interests interconnected by his interest in the human equation in all this.
"In selecting our play to read in conjunction with Berry's book, I decided to go in a direction in which memory, change, being an individual and the importance of one's roots in one's life (things which play an enormous role in 'The Memory of Old Jack')
all play a part." Greg Vinkler - Artistic Director President Clinton noted when awarding Horton Foote the National Medal of Arts in 2000: "His work is rooted in the tales, the troubles, the heartbreak, and the hopes of all he heard and saw. As a young man, he left Wharton (Texas) to become an actor and soon discovered the easiest way to get good roles was to write the plays yourself. And he hasn't stopped since. Among other things, he did a magnificent job of adapting Harper Lee's classic 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for the silver screen, and writing his wonderful 'The Trip To Bountiful' and so many other tales of family, community, and the triumph of the human spirit."
Academy-Award and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Foote's "The Trip to Bountiful" has made the journey from television to stage to film and back to the Broadway stage earning Cicely Tyson a Tony Award for best actress last spring. Foote is another author inspired by his rural environment and often set his works there.
Octogenarian Carrie Watts makes a break from her hen- pecked son and domineering daughter-in-law's cramped Houston, Texas apartment. Taking her pension check she travels to the small Texas town she has been pining to see.
Along her heartbreaking, yet life-affirming journey Carrie
hums hymns, nurses her bad heart and frail memory to become the traveling companion of a young Army bride, Barbara Simpson Thelma. "The Trip to Bountiful" has endeared itself to Fuhrmann theatergoers for decades with its message of hope and faith.
"I've waited a long time," Carrie says in scene six of the play. "Just to get to Bountiful. Twenty years I've been walkin' the streets of the city, lost and grieving. And as I've grown older and my time approaches, I've made one promise to myself, to see my home again....before I die..."
Written and set in the 1950s Foote explores the transitions of rural to urban life as well the intergenerational relationships in a time when the teenage social class was just emerging. "When you've lived as long as I have, you see the beginnings and the ends of so many stories," Horton Foote said.
Peninsula Players Artistic Director Greg Vinkler will direct and perform in the reading. Vinkler has directed and performed in previous play readings last winter as well as in numerous Players productions including "Amadeus," "Art," "A Man for All Seasons" and "Opus," He recently performed in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Angela Ingersoll
The cast includes Barbara Simpson Fuhrmann as Carrie Watts, Tim Gittings as Carries's son Ludie; Angela Ingersoll as Carrie's daughter-in- law Jessie Mae; Amy Ensign as Thelma; Mark Moede as a ticket agent and sheriff and Vinkler as Roy and another ticket agent.
Barbara Simpson Fuhrmann spent several seasons in the Players acting company and now serves on its board of directors. She originated the role of Eva Ranney in Kristine Thatcher's Door County history play, "Apparitions," and appeared in the immensely popular "You Can't Take it With You." She played Lorine at Milwaukee Rep as well as in the Players reading of another of Thatcher's plays, "Niedecker."
Ensign and Moede are active in the Door County theater community with such companiesas American Folklore Theatre, Door Shakespeare, Isadoora Theatre Company, Third Avenue Playhouse and Theatre M. Both performed in the Players staged reading of "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter."
Gittings has extensive stage credits with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, American Players Theatre and seven seasons with Door Shakespeare. His additional credits include "Awake and Sing!" At Northlight Theatre, "Heartbreak Hotel" at Writers' Theatre and "A Christmas Carol" at Goodman Theatre. Ingersoll also has extensive credits with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Northlight, Porchlight Music
Theater, Madison Repertory Theatre, Playhouse on the Square and Cincinnati Shakespeare. Tim Gittings
Foote won two Academy Awards: the first for his screen adaptation of Harper Lee's " To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), and the second for his original screenplay, "Tender Mercies" (1983). His play "The Young Man from Atlanta" won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for a Tony Award.
"The Trip to Bountiful" first aired on television in March, 1953 with Lillian Gish playing Carrie Watts and introducing a young Eva Marie Saint as Thelma. Foote expanded the one hour drama to a two-act play, which debuted on Broadway in November, 1953, closing after only 39 performances.
Foote received his third Oscar nomination for the 1984 film featuring Geraldine Paige as Carrie Watts. "The Trip to Bountiful" was revived on Broadway in 2013 with Vanessa Williams and Cicely Tyson, who earned a Tony for her portrayal of Carrie Watts.
"The Trip to Bountiful" is the first of three reading of The Play's the Thing, a winter series of play readings produced by Amy Ensign Peninsula Players Theatre. Phone the Peninsula Players at
920-868-3287 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 920-868- 3287 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting for information on the reading of "The Trip to Bountiful" at Björklunden 7p.m., Monday, February, 3. Admission is free, general seating available.
The Play's the Thing is funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, as well as generous grants from Ministry Door County Medical Center and Friends of Door County Libraries.
Door County Reads is in its fourth year, having grown out of the Library/Players partnership to bring The Big Read to Door County for three years. This year's read focuses on the novel "The Memory of Old Jack." A full listing of events can be found at www.doorcountyreads.org.
Peninsula Players Theatre is America's Oldest Professional Resident Summer Theatre. The Play's the Thing is part of the Players' continuing winter outreach programming, presenting professional play readings for the public and for students receiving play writing instruction. Learn about Peninsula Players' summer seasons at www.peninsulaplayers.com.
Mark Moede