Lots o' Horton Foote

Just saw Kitchen Dog's entry in the Horton Foote festival, Three Foote, three of his one act plays.

I hadn't realized that Blind Date was quite so funny.  The Man With One Arm was disturbing.  And The Man Who Climbed Pecan Trees ended much like Ibsen's Ghosts.  All well done.  Seeing the same actors in differing roles added something, I think - certainly reinforced the autobiographical mining for characters that, I'm told, Horton Foote often did...  For instance, a sort of "ghost" of his real-life drunken uncle appeared in the last play.  The women's roles also had recurring character types or perhaps recurring characteristics?

The set was interesting: wall hangings painted as bleak grey skies and gray landscapes populated by faces within the outlines of houses and a few skeletal trees.  In front of that, two suspended windows (with or without lace curtains) and as-needed furniture (all in warm tones) or a cotton bale.  Worked well.  The difficulty, of course, was to find something that would work in tone for all three plays...  The background was, I thought, a little bleak for the first play, Blind Date.  I wished some of the warm color of the floor had been pulled up into the bottom of the wall landscapes - which were perfect for the last play.

Caring About Characters

One critic wrote of Horton Foote's The Traveling Lady as "old fashioned."  True - compared to Dividing the Estate.  One place this shows is that, while characters in Estate are amusing and life-like, they feel more like performances.  I'm not quibbling actors' technique here (which was excellent) but a presentational quality written into the characters.  Whereas, even with comic exaggeration, characters in Traveling Lady are more life-sized somehow.  Much more sympathetic.  In an age of anti-heroes and cynicism, that makes them very old fashioned indeed!

Proof?  Days after seeing Traveling Lady, my theater companion asked whether, in the 1950s, a respectable lady would go off in a car with a man (the kindly Slim) she'd only known a few days.  We discussed this, deciding that, yes, in Georgette's dire circumstances she would.  Her young daughter would seem a respectable enough chaperon.  We bet Slim would work and save to help pay for Georgette's divorce and they'd marry as soon as the decree arrived.  I think they'll be happy.  Meanwhile, I hope Sitter Mavis doesn't regret not learning to dance too often and that Mr Tillman is speaking to his wife again.

Think anyone left the theater after Estate worrying whether the family's oil well comes in?

Pass the Word!

Tomorrow, April 7th, Kitchen Dog Theater has a performance of Three Foote (three one acts by Horton Foote) which will be attended by Hallie Foote, the playwright's daughter.

Let's pack the house! Contact Kitchen Dog for tickets.

Opening!

The Traveling Lady opens tonight at WaterTower Theatre.  Sold out - even I don't have a seat.  Even the director doesn't have a seat!  So buy tickets for later in the run - they're selling fast.  It's a good show.

Another Not-A-Review

Dividing the Estate at the Dallas Theater Center.  I'm beginning to be glad that I'll never invite Horton Foote to a family picnic - no telling what he'd notice.  What a very observant and quietly, wickedly, funny play Dividing the Estate is.  This cast does well by these characters.  Two I particularly enjoyed: the actress who played the sister who wants the money now! and Mathew Gray's only-sane-man-in-the-room.

Of course, it's the set I come to see.  (Kiddin', kiddin'.)  This one, designed by John Arnone, is straightforward.  A row of tall, classical columns, echoed by matching pilasters further upstage with doors and windows between them on the transparent wall, mark a raised entry hall.  Downstage, in thrust, is a dining room platform with a long table and chandelier, thrust still further downstage is the living room.  Upstage of the hall we see a small curved entry court, dangling leaves of weeping willows, and a sky cyc.  Simple, nicely done.

Now, I'm picky, but this is a Tony winning Broadway designer, visiting at SMU, so his design will stand up to a picky question.  Why deliberately flatten the columns?  Detailing made it clear this was a design choice.  Why not make the capitals 3D, since, of course, they were 3D.  Before the show I guessed some metaphor about characters presenting "facades"... but that didn't make sense watching the play.  To point out the artificiality of this as a "set" not a real place?  Puzzling.  Likewise unrealistically-wide painted floor boards - also to underline set-ishness?  I didn't like the spindle-baluster railings each side of the set, but that's a pet peeve of mine.  Hate 'em in real life.  Too widely spaced on-stage versions drive me completely nuts - I'd rather have no railings.

I found a link to Mr. Arnone's webpage.  I found his The Goat set especially interesting, as I've designed that show myself.  I hope I (and my fellow local designers) get a chance to meet this accomplished set designer now that he's in town.

A Little News

Reading today's paper I found these interesting tidbits:

Horton Foote Festival information: www.hortonfootefestival.com
There's a good piece about some of the shows (including The Traveling Lady) on page 46 of today's Dallas News Guide magazine.

And a bit in Jacquielynn Floyd's column: visiting star architects (Starchitects) who have work in our spandy-new Arts District sometimes refer to it as "an architectural petting zoo."  Pretty funny.  True too.

The Horton Foote Festival

Dallas / Fort Worth is starting a unique celebration of our home-grown Texas playwright, Horton Foote.

This multi-city, multi-group festival is exciting - theaters, cinemas, KERA, Arts & Letters Live, the arts magnet high school - all presenting Horton Foote's work.  I'm privileged to play a small role in all this, designing The Traveling Lady set for WaterTower Theatre's production.  (A big plus is that it is directed by a long time collaborator of Foote's.)  A lovely play.

Mr. Foote may be the most famous man nobody's ever heard of.  

He wrote 70 plays plus distinguished film scripts (including that jewel To Kill a Mockingbird!) and, oh, you know, a Pulitzer.  But he must have been a not-a-back-slapper kind of person... like his plays...  gentle, shrewd, well-observed, real-people drama.  Not much blood (I think it's wild that WaterTower is following the violent Lieutenant of Inishmore with the subtle Lady).  Stuff happens, of course - The Traveling Lady has more or less a prison break and chase, abandonment, theft, breach of trust, all that dramatic stuff - but it's at human scale and characters have recognizable real-human reactions.  You think - "I know that lady.  I know how she feels."

This is the second of Foote's plays I've gotten to design.  I find the effect of his work cumulative... seeping into my own world, helping me see other people a little more kindly - but more accurately.  Maybe I'm a little wiser?  Maybe we all need more Horton Foote more of the time?  

The Traveling Lady - Horton Foote, WaterTower Theatre, Addison TX