Goodman Theatre

For Immediate Release

(Chicago, IL - January 18, 2008) Goodman Theatre's 10-week celebration of Academy Award-winning American playwright Horton Foote continues with two seldom seen one-act plays, Blind Date and The Actor, presented in-the-round in repertory with Talking Pictures in the Goodman's Owen Theatre. Two Chicago-based directors helm the one-acts: Steve Scott, Goodman Theatre Artistic Collective member and Associate Producer, directs Blind Date, and award-winning director Rick Snyder returns to the Goodman to direct The Actor in the two-play evening that shares its cast with Talking Pictures. Blind Date and The Actor run February 21 - March 2; opening night is February 22 at 8pm.

In Blind Date, which Foote wrote in 1985 amidst a series of one-acts, Sarah Nancy just cannot make it past the first date with a boy-to the great disappointment of her Aunt Dolores. Determined that her niece will not die a spinster, Aunt Dolores finds a suitable young man to come calling on Sarah Nancy. The rules of etiquette have changed since Aunt Dolores charmed her way onto the yearbook beauty pages, and Sarah Nancy finds it impossible to fit herself into her aunt's mold. Foote penned The Actor in 2002, for the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Fifteen year old Horace Robedaux receives his calling to become an actor-but in 1932, during the heart of the Great Depression, Horace's father worries that sending his son to acting school would be a waste of their limited funds. Meanwhile, the conservative Texas town is anything but supportive of Horace's dream.

Cast of Blind Date:
Dolores	Judy Blue
Felix	Dan Hale
Sarah Nancy	Kathleen Romond
Robert	Jason Wells

Cast of The Actor:
Horace	Patrick Andrews
Dorothy	Audrey Francis
Boy #2	Dan Hale
Elizabeth	Jenny McKnight
Boy #1	Gabriel Notarangelo
The Girl	Lee Stark
Jim	Bubba Weiler
Horace Sr.	Phillip Earl Johnson

Tickets are $10 to $38 and may be purchased online at GoodmanTheatre.org, at the Goodman Theatre Box Office, 170 North Dearborn Street, or charged by phoning 312.443.3800. See Foote Festival calendar for specific dates, times and prices. MezzTix are half-price mezzanine tickets available at 6pm for evening shows and 12 noon for matinees at the box office, and at10am online at GoodmanTheatre.org on the day of performance, subject to availability. Groups of 10 or more, call 312.443.3820. When purchasing on GoodmanTheatre.org, enter the promo code MEZZTIX. 10Tix are $10 mezzanine tickets for students available for purchase online or in-person at the box office on the day-of performance; 10Tix are not available by telephone. When purchasing on GoodmanTheatre.org, enter the promo code 10TIX. Valid student I.D. must be presented when picking up the tickets at will call. Limit 4 tickets per student with I.D. Tickets are subject to availability and handling fees apply.

The Goodman's Horton Foote Festival honors a living legend, "[one of the] strongest, most individual and most abidingly relevant voices in theater." (The New York Times). The festival continues a burgeoning tradition at Goodman Theatre of exploring the work of the most important, influential and moving writers for the stage, including August Wilson (2007), David Mamet (2006), Edward Albee (2005) - and in 2009, Eugene O'Neill.

In addition to Talking Pictures, Blind Date and The Actor, the Horton Foote Festival includes The Trip To Bountiful, directed by Harris Yulin, featuring Lois Smith (March 1 - April 6). The celebration is augmented by a series of special one-night-only events taking place on Monday evenings during the month of March; more details will be released in the coming weeks.

About Horton Foote

Academy Award-winner and playwright Horton Foote's realistic portrayal of locales and characters of southeastern Texas has been his signature for more than five decades of writing for the stage, television and film. He was born in 1916 in Wharton, Texas-the town he would subsequently use as the setting for many of his plays, under the pseudonym "Harrison." His first play, Wharton Dance, was produced in New York in 1941 and was followed by Texas Town (1942), Only the Heart (1944), Celebration (1948), The Chase (1952) and The Traveling Lady (1954). He wrote The Trip to Bountiful for NBC television in 1953 and adapted it for Broadway later that year. He achieved prominence writing for television and film during the 1950s and 1960s for such works as The Dancers (1954), A Young Lady of Property (1956), Flight (1957), Storm Fear (1955) and Baby, The Rain Must Fall (1964).

Foote has won two Academy Awards, the first for his screen adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and the second for his original screenplay, Tender Mercies (1983). Other film work includes Tomorrow (1972), the movie version of The Trip to Bountiful, nominated for an Academy Award (1985), Convicts (1989) and Lily Dale (1996).

In recent years, Foote has returned to concentrating on theater; among the many plays which have earned him acclaim have been The Roads to Home (1982), 1918 (1987), Lily Dale (1988), The Widow Claire (1988), Dividing the Estate (1989), The Last of the Thorntons (2001), The Carpetbagger's Children and Getting Frankie Married…and Afterward (both 2002). The Young Man From Atlanta won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize, following its premiere at Signature Theatre Company off-Broadway, as part of a season devoted entirely to Foote works. In December 2000, President Clinton awarded Foote the National Medal of Arts.

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