Signature Theatre and Hartford Stage to Produce Horton Foote's Nine-Play "Orphans' Home Cycle"

Signature Theatre Company and Hartford Stage will join together to produce “The Orphans’ Home Cycle,” nine plays by Horton Foote that have been newly adapted by 92-year-old playwright into a three-part theatrical event. The cycle will form the 2009-2010 season at Signature, replacing a previously announced season devoted to Suzan-Lori Parks. According to a news release, the Parks retrospective “has been delayed due to Ms. Parks’ current workload and other professional obligations. Signature hopes to celebrate her work in a future season.”

The plays will be directed by Michael Wilson director of the recent Broadway production of Foote's Dividing the Estate and performed in Hartford from August 27 to October 17 and at Signature from October 29 to April 11. Each part of the three-part cycle will be staged individually as well as in repertory and one-day marathons. Three of the individual plays, Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts and Cousins will receive their world premieres.

Over three dozen artists will come together over a nine month period to present this historic production. Casting has not yet been announced.

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. The plays are set in Foote’s fictitious town of Harrison, Texas, and based partly on the childhood of his father and the courtship and marriage of his parents.

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 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.

Signature devoted its 1994-1995 season to 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.