Horton Foote, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright and Academy Award Winner Dead at 92

The New York Times reports the sad news that Horton Foote, who chronicled America's many voices and many lives and who will leave a dramatic and literary legacy as one of the country's greatest storytellers, has passed away today in Hartford, Connecticut. He was 92, said his daughter Hallie Foote.

Foote, was most recently represented on Broadway with Dividing The Estate.

THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE, a world premiere production of nine plays by Horton Foote that were newly adapted by the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning playwright into a three-part theatrical event, will be co-produced in the 2009-2010 season by Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) and Hartford Stage (Michael Wilson, Artistic Director; Michael Stotts, Managing Director).

The productions will be directed by Michael Wilson and performed at Hartford Stage from August 27, 2009 to October 17, 2009 and at Signature Theatre Company, from October 29, 2009 to April 11, 2010. Each part of the three part cycle will be staged individually as well as in repertory and one-day marathons. Audiences may choose to see the individual parts or the entire trilogy.

THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE encompasses nine newly adapted plays by Mr. Foote, together for the first time. Mr. Foote, was actively adapting each of the full-length plays before his passing, some previously produced and others never before seen, into one epic cycle.

Over three dozen artists will come together over a nine month period to present this historic production. This three-part version of THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE was commissioned by Hartford Stage in 2007.

Classical in its breadth and scope, THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE begins with a father's death in a small-Texas town at the turn of the century, a loss that sends his son, Horace Robedaux, on an odyssey through the darkest corners of the heart as he learns to become a husband, father, and patriarch. Set in Foote's fictitious town of Harrison, Texas and based partly on the childhood of Foote's father and the courtship and marriage of his parents, the cycle is a wide-ranging, intricate work.

Part I begins at the turn of the 20th century with the plays Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts and Lily Dale and follows Horace Robedaux in his formative years.

Part II focuses on the married life of Horace Robedaux and his new wife and is made up of the plays The Widow Claire, Courtship and Valentine's Day.

Part III consists of the plays 1918, Cousins and The Death of Papa and begins with the turmoil of World War I and ends with the characters looking to the future of their family and land.

Three of the individual plays, Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts and Cousins will be receiving their world premieres as part of the cycle.

Signature Theatre Company devoted its 1994-1995 season to Horton Foote, including the world premieres of The Young Man from Atlanta (for which Foote won the Pulitzer Prize) and Laura Dennis and the New York premieres of Night Seasons and Talking Pictures. Signature produced the world premiere of his The Last of the Thorntons in its 2000-2001 season and the award-winning production of The Trip to Bountiful in 2005 in the company's 15th anniversary season.

Hartford Stage has produced the world premieres of The Carpetbagger's Children (which transferred Off-Broadway), and The Death of Papa (the last play in THE ORPHANS' HOME CYCLE), as well as the 50th anniversary revival of The Trip to Bountiful. In May, Hartford Stage presented the Broadway transfer of Mr. Foote's hit comedy, Dividing The Estate.

Horton Foote had his first play, Texas Town, produced Off-Broadway in 1941. Since then he has had plays produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off Off-Broadway and at many theaters around the country. Plays include Dividing The Estate (Broadway/Lincoln Center Theater, Primary Stages, and upcoming at Hartford Stage), The Young Man From Atlanta (Pulitzer Prize), The Trip to Bountiful (Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Revival), The Carpetbagger's Children (American Theater Critics 2002 Best Play Award), The Day Emily Married, The Last of the Thorntons, The Chase, The Traveling Lady, Night Seasons, Tomorrow, The Habitation of Dragons, Laura Dennis, Vernon Early and The Roads to Home. He received Academy Awards for his screenplay adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and his original screenplay, Tender Mercies. Awards include Obie and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Dividing The Estate, Lortel Award for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway and the Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award for the Signature Theatre Company series of his plays, Drama Desk Lifetime Achievement Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal of Drama for the body of his work, PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for Drama, New York State Governor's Award and the 2000 National Medal of Arts Award from President Bill Clinton. Honors: Theatre Hall of Fame (1996), elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998). His memoirs, Farewell and Beginnings, are published by Scribners.

Horton Foote is survived by his children, Horton Jr., Walter, Hallie, and Daisy

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