Horton Foote

Two Plays from the Orphans' Home Cycle (Foote, Horton)

Cousins and the Death of Papa

Four Plays from the Orphans' Home Cycle (Foote, Horton)

Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts, Lily Dale, The Widow Claire

Three Plays from the Orphans' Home Cycle (Foote, Horton)

Courtship, Valentine's Day, 1918

THE STORY: 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 watchful eye of her

Play in Three Acts

The Trip to Bountiful

Mark Dawidziak

(Applause Books). Published for the first time and reprinted from the only surviving copy of the script, which was discovered in the CBS-TV vaults, Applause is proud to present The Shape of the River , an ambitious television drama by Horton Foote. Mark Twain once remarked that inside every person, "there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy." However, tragedy was a dimension of Twain's life that was largely concealed from the public until The Shape of the River , starring Shirley Knight, appeared on the acclaimed series Playhouse 90 in 1960. Foote's play explored the misfortune and loss that characterized Twain's last 15 years. From his heroic (and successful) attempt to repay almost $100,000 in debt by lecturing around the world (which he hated), to the deaths of his wife and two daughters, this last phase of his life was marked by an incredible amount of sadness and pain. Not seen since its initial broadcast, The Shape of the River has long held legendary status for fans of both Twain and classic television. The play is accompanied by commentary by Twain scholar Mark Dawidziak, who examines the writing and production of the teleplay, and considers its meaning for students of Twain and television. Also included are rare photos from the original Playhouse 90 taping.

The Lost Teleplay about Mark Twain

Horton Foote's "The Shape of the River"

THE STORY: 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 hear

Getting Frankie Married-- and Afterwards

For more than five decades, Horton Foote, "the Chekhov of the small town," has chronicled with compassion and acuity the changes in American life -- both intimate and universal. His adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and his original screenplay Tender Mercies earned him Academy Awards. He received an Indie Award for Best Writer for The Trip to Bountiful and a Pulitzer Prize for The Young Man from Atlanta. In his plays and films, Foote has returned over and over again to Wharton, Texas, where he was born and where he lives, once again, in the house in which he grew up. Now for the first time, in Farewell, Foote turns to prose to tell his own story and the stories of the real people who have inspired his characters. He was the first child of his generation of Footes, born into an extended family of aunts, great-aunts, grandparents and dozens of cousins once removed, all of whom discovered that even as a young boy Foote was an avid listener with an uncanny ability to extract a story -- including those deemed unfit for children. Foote's memories are of a time when going down to meet the train was an event whether or not you knew someone on it, when black and white children played together until segregation forced them apart at school-age. Foote beautifully maintains the child's-eye view, so that we gradually discover, as did he, that something was wrong with his Brooks uncles, that none of them proved able to keep a job or stay married or quit drinking. We see his growing understanding of all sorts of trouble -- poverty, racism, injustice, marital strife, depression and fear. His memoir is both a celebration of the immense importance of community in our earlier history and evidence that even a strong community cannot save a lost soul. In all of Foote's writing, he reveals the immense drama behind quiet lives, or as Frank Rich has said, "the unbearable turbulence beneath a tranquil surface." Farewell is as deeply moving as the best of Foote's writing for film and theater, and a gorgeous testimony to his own faith in the human spirit.

A Memoir of a Texas Childhood

Farewell

The Man who Climbed the Pecan Trees

THE STORY: Myrtle Bledsoe, a ninety-year-old Texas widow, looks back on the dramatic events that caused a small Southern town, and her own relationships, incredible strife. This almost-monologue by American master Horton Foote is a haunting tale of how men and women, blacks and whites, rich and poor are all entangled in the chaos of life.

A Coffin in Egypt

THE STORY: The recently orphaned Horace Robedaux is determined to buy a headstone for his father's grave. He goes to work on Soll Gautier's isolated prison farm but soon discovers that his ill and senile employer is frightfully paranoid among the c

By Horton Foote

Convicts

THE STORIES: 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. (2 men, 4 women.

The Tears of My Sister ; The Prisoner's Song ; The One-armed Man ; And, The Land of the Astronauts

John Steinbeck

Gary Sinise

Alexis Arquette

John Malkovich

Von Mäusen und Menschen

Dramatizes a rape trial in a small Southern town, a washed-up country singer's recovery, and an old woman's return to her home

Three Screenplays

To Kill a Mockingbird ; Tender Mercies ; And, The Trip to Bountiful

Jane Fonda

Marlon Brando

E. G. Marshall

Arthur Penn

Robert Redford

Ein Mann wird gejagd

The Chase

The screenplay by Horton Foote; based on the Harper Lee's award-winning novel is adapted for the movies.

The Screenplay and Related Readings

To Kill a Mockingbird

THE STORY: As gentle and warm as the spring night in which it takes place, 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

Horton Foote

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