About the play BOUNTIFUL
The Trip to Bountiful was written by Horton Foote, who also wrote the Academy Award winning screenplay that heavily influenced a previous CAST/Open Door collaboration called, To Kill A Mockingbird. Bountiful originally appeared on NBC-TV in March of 1953 with Lillian Gish in the lead role. The same cast mounted a Broadway production that season which featured Eva Marie Saint in the role of Thelma when she wasn’t busy on the set of On the Waterfront filming concurrently in New York. Jo Van Fleet who played Jessie Mae in that first production won a best actress Tony at the 8th annual awards ceremony. The Trip to Bountiful has gone on to win awards in nearly every incarnation from TV to stage to major motion picture in 1986.
As it turns out, 1986 was also the year the CAST program began at what is now Julian Middle School. That year, Geraldine Page set the standard for acting with her Academy Award winning performance as Carrie Watts. Most recently, Cecily Tyson’s 2013 Broadway production has 4 Tony Awards to its credit and was filmed for television. In returning to its origins on TV, the play has gone full circle just like its characters.
“The Russians have Anton Chekhov. The Irish have Brian Friel. And we Americans have Horton Foote.” -Chicago Sun Times.
Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful is the story of Carrie Watts, who feels trapped in a Houston apartment with her bickering son and daughter-in-law. She longs to return to her home on the Gulf Coast in Bountiful, Texas. In a daring daylight escape, she absconds with her pension check and overcomes mighty obstacles to get near to the deserted town. Along the way, she meets a charming cast of characters that only Horton Foote could have created, and each helps her to that destination, sometimes as much mentally as geographically. In the end, we all learn that Bountiful is not what Carrie remembered it to be, but ‘the trip’ was exactly what she needed.
“Horton Foote’s characters, absolutely plausible in their ordinariness, so specific to their region, become, as we watch them live their lives, indelible and universal. There is no more valuable gift that drama can give.” -Tony Kushner
As CAST director Bill McGlynn remembers it The Trip to Bountiful came up in a summer camp meeting in 2008. Bountiful director, Ty Perry had seen the show at the Goodman the night before and could not stop talking about it, specifically Lois Smith’s groundbreaking portrayal of protagonist Carrie Watts.
Bountiful couldn’t provide a more appropriate way to mark CAST’s 30th anniversary. It offers wonderful opportunities for characters of all ages to work together, while at the same time encouraging the audience to notice and take heart from the ordinary passage of time. CAST hopes that alumni, families and friends of the program will fill the house at Open Door every weekend and use the time to catch up with old friends, view old photographs and memorabilia displayed in the lobby, and even make some new friends. This production will re-affirm our community’s deep-rooted support for arts education and take note of the bountiful trip we’ve already experienced.
“Lois Smith’s performance last night was why you do theatre, everyone should see it and right away!” said Mr. Perry. Everyone at the meeting proceeded to ask what songs she sang and how were the dance costumes because it was so inconceivable that Mr. Perry could be so enraptured with anything that wasn’t a musical. It is definitely not a musical but somehow it is not just a play either. When it is done right, The Trip to Bountiful changes you just like it changes the life of all its characters large and small.
