Milwaukee Chamber Theatre will put its Foote down Oct. 19 when it opens The Trip To Bountiful at their Cabot Theatre Space at the Broadway Theatre Center.

. Directed by company Artistic Director Montgomery Davis, Horton Foote's The Trip To Bountiful was first conceived as a teleplay in 1953 for the Philco/Goodyear Television Playhouse. The author then turned it into a stage play and, thirty years later, a screenplay, which in 1985 earned Geraldine Page a best actress Tony.

In the quiet drama, Mrs. Carrie Watts, troubled by her meek son and neurotic daughter-in-law, desperately tries to survive changes in the modern world. Carrie finally gets to return to her childhood home in Bountiful, Texas, where she searches for a community that no longer exists.

"Classic American theatre deals in a yearning for a bygone era in the myth of American innocence," said Montgomery Davis of his decision to stage the Foote piece. "[It's] a clear-eyed assessment of the frailties of America in our modern age."

Ruth Schudson, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre co-founder, will star as Mrs. Watts. James Tasse, Paula Cabot and Mary MacDonald Kerr round out the cast. Sets are by John Starmer, costumes by Ellen Kozak, lighting by Chester Loeffler Bell, and sound by Doug Hillard. Horton Foote's other plays include Wharton Dance (1940), The Roads To Home (1982), and more recent, Pulitzer-winning Young Man From Atlanta.

For tickets ($10-$27) and information on The Trip To Bountiful, which runs to Nov. 3, call (414) 291-7800. Post-performance "talk-backs" are scheduled for Oct. 25 and 31.

-- By David Lefkowitz