Plaza calls auditions for Foote play

The Plaza Theatre on the Square in Wharton will hold open auditions for Horton Foote's The Traveling Lady on Feb. 3 and 4 at 6 p.m. at the Wharton County Historical Museum, 3615 N. Richmond, in Wharton. Performances are slated for April 11-20.

"We're excited about working on a play by Horton Foote in the same year that we will be honoring him as our Lamplighter of the Year," Director Candyce Byrne said.

"I'll be glad to make appointments for anyone who can't make it to either of the auditions," Byrne said. Those appointments can be made by phone or e-mail: 979-532-1084 or footlite@warpspeed1.net.

The play has 10 characters: Mrs. Mavis, Slim Murray, Judge Robedaux, Georgette Thomas, Margaret Rose, Clara Breedlove, Sitter Mavis, Mrs. Tillman, Henry Thomas and the Sheriff (a non-speaking, older, authoritative man. This performer may be double-cast as Judge Robedaux.)

Foote is considered one of America's greatest living playwrights. A recent off-Broadway production of his Dividing the Estate was listed as one of the ten best plays of 2007 by the New York Times.

Foote, long interested in Texas music, followed Henry Thomas into his later years in the character of Mac Sledge, played by Robert Duvall in the Oscar-winning movie Tender Mercies.

In 1965, The Traveling Lady also became a movie that was partly filmed in Wharton and renamed Baby, The Rain Must Fall. It featured Steve McQueen as Henry and Lee Remick as Georgette.