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Signature Remembers Horton Foote
Signature Theatre Company's 2009-2010 Horton Foote Legacy Season honors the company's late friend and colleague with the world premiere of The Orphans' Home Cycle, Foote's nine play cycle of plays which chronicles the journey of Horace Robedaux from boy to man during the early twentieth century. The season also marks a cumulative milestone in Signature's long and rich relationship with Foote, who passed away in March 2009 at the age of 92.
Horton Foote's association with Signature began during the company's inaugural season in 1991 when he attended every play by his friend, Signature Founding Playwright-in-Residence Romulus Linney. Founding Artistic Director James Houghton recalls his first meeting with Foote when the seed for a season of Foote's own was planted. "I remember sitting on the steps of the risers in the little Kampo Cultural Center and Horton was sitting in the aisle and we just had a wonderful conversation. He was compelled in the idea of a single writer season and I remember very specifically saying, 'Well you know, we should really think about doing a season together at some point,' and he immediately said, 'That would be wonderful, that would be terrific.'"
Houghton was introduced to Foote's work as a graduate acting student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas when he attended a production of Valentine's Day and 1918, the sixth and seventh plays of The Orphans' Home Cycle. "I was really moved by them and found them to have this wonderful sense of ease and breadth, yet at the same time to be extremely complex. I was just taken by them and it made me curious about Horton. I learned more about him after that by reading more of the cycle and started following his work."
Foote joined Signature for the 1994-1995 Season as the company's fourth Playwright-in-Residence. Signature presented four plays at the 80-seat Kampo Cultural Center on Bond Street: the New York premieres of Talking Pictures and Night Seasons, and the world premieres of The Young Man from Atlanta and Laura Dennis. Foote was a daily presence in rehearsals, attended nearly all performances, and directed Night Seasons. His daughter, Hallie Foote, appeared in all of her father's work that season with the exception of The Young Man from Atlanta. Foote's son, Horton Foote, Jr., appeared in Laura Dennis, which Houghton directed. The season also featured performances from Devon Abner in Night Seasons and The Young Man from Atlanta, Jean Stapleton in Night Seasons, and Ralph Waite in The Young Man from Atlanta.
Foote's season culminated in The Young Man from Atlanta receiving the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Foote and Signature receiving Lucille Lortel Awards for an Individual Body of Work, and the Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award for Foote. To Houghton, the awards were secondary to the regular presence of Foote and his profound impact on the company. "Horton was the first writer who was literally at every rehearsal and at most performances. His ferocious appetite for the theatre was infectious. The acknowledgement of his work, and ours as well, was great. But what was most important that year was this writer who completely embraced the idea of immersion and who in turn was embraced by the company. The benefit was all of us growing from that experience."
Foote returned to Signature in 2000 during the Tenth Anniversary All-Premiere Celebration Part One for the world premiere of his play, The Last of the Thorntons. Houghton directed a cast featuring Mason Adams, Timothy Altmeyer, Hallie Foote, Mary Catherine Garrison, Michael Hadge, Jen Jones, Alice McLane, Estelle Parsons, Anne Pitoniak, and Cherene Snow. For the company's 2005-2006 Fifteenth Anniversary Celebration, Foote's landmark play, The Trip to Bountiful, inaugurated the Signature Series, a component of Signature's Legacy Program, which invites past Playwrights-in-Residence back to Signature to present "signature" plays from their bodies of work. The heavily lauded play and production included performances by Devon Abner, Meghan Andrews, James DeMarse, Hallie Foote, and Lois Smith under the direction of Harris Yulin.
"In a way, once Horton arrived at Signature he never left," reflects Houghton. "He attended every production we've ever done and supported the company by being present at events, writing letters, and just getting out there and talking about how important it was to him and to the American theatre. I'm deeply saddened by his loss and in a funny way, even at the age of 92, his passing feels premature. The Orphans' Home Cycle was literally the last thing he was working on and knowing that he knew it was going to happen is incredibly comforting. I sure wish he was with us every day and at every performance but his presence and his guidance is definitely felt through the work itself."
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