Horton Foote Withdraws Dividing the Estate from Lortel Awards

Playwright Horton Foote has sent a letter withdrawing his play Dividing the Estate from consideration in the Best Revival category for the 2008 Lucille Lortel Awards. Primary Stages' production of the play received a Best Revival nomination on April 1, but Foote felt it should have been considered as a new play. The text of Foote's letter, as provided by his literary agent, is as follows:

To the Members of the Lortel Committee:
I have been honored with Lucille Lortel Award nominations and wins. I believe, however, in the case of Dividing the Estate, a mistake has been made in the nomination process. I could not honestly accept a nomination for this play as a Revival. I understand from the Lortel Administration that you are unable to withdraw the play from the nominations, and for that reason I am formally withdrawing my play. 
Cordially,
Horton Foote

Dividing the Estate premiered at the McCarter Theatre in New Jersey in 1989 and has been produced at other theaters since, but the 92-year-old playwright revised and reconceived the play for Primary Stages, where it received its New York debut last fall. Michael Wilson's production, which starred Elizabeth Ashley, Hallie Foote, Penny Fuller and Gerald McRaney, received glowing reviews and will transfer to Broadway in October. Variety speculated that Foote's letter is a bid to make sure that Dividing the Estate will be considered as a new play in next year's Tony Awards race.

Dividing the Estate will be the first Foote play presented on Broadway since his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Young Man From Atlanta was produced in 1997. The playwright has enjoyed a number of well-reviewed off-Broadway productions in recent years, including The Day Emily Married and When They Speak of Rita at Primary Stages, The Trip to Bountiful at Signature Theater, and The Traveling Lady at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Lincoln Center Theater produced his play The Carpetbagger's Children in 2002. As a screenwriter, Foote won Academy Awards for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies.