The nine-play cycle, which is currently playing its world-premiere engagement at Hartford Stage Company through Oct. 24, will make its New York debut under the direction of Michael Wilson beginning Nov. 5. Performances were originally scheduled to conclude March 6, 2010, but have now been extended through March 28, 2010 Off-Broadway.
Late Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize-winner Foote's 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. Set in Foote's fictitious town of Harrison, Texas and based partly on the childhood of Foote's father and the courtship and marriage of his parents, the cycle is a wide-ranging, intricate work," according to press notes.
Foote's daughter, Tony nominated actress Hallie Foote (Dividing the Estate) portrays Mary Vaughn in a cast that also features Bill Heck ("The Closer," Medium") in the central role of Horace Robedaux, with Dividing the Estate actress Maggie Lacey as his wife, Elizabeth Vaughn Robedaux, and James DeMarse (Dividing the Estate, The Trip to Bountiful) as Henry Vaughn.
Completing the cast are Devon Abner, Pat Bowie, Leon Addison Brown, Justin Fuller, Jasmine Harrison, Henry Hodges, Georgi James, Annalee Jefferies, Virginia Kull, Matt Mulhern, Gilbert Owour, Jenny Dare Paulin, Pamela Payton-Wright, Bryce Pinkham, Stephen Plunkett, Lucas Caleb Rooney, Dylan Riley Snyder and Charles Turner.
Part I (The Story of a Childhood) consists of the plays Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts and Lily Dale; Part II (The Story of a Marriage) includes The Widow Claire, Courtship and Valentine's Day; and Part III (The Story of a Family) concludes with 1918, Cousins and The Death of Papa. The Orphans' Home Cycle has set design by Jeff Cowie and David Barber, costume design by David Woolard, lighting design by Rui Rita, original music and sound design by John Gromada and choreography by Peter Pucci. Dialect coach is Ralph Zito. Fight director is Mark Olson.
A Pulitzer Prize winner for The Young Man from Atlanta, Foote's plays also include Dividing the Estate (2009 Tony nomination for Best Play), The Carpetbagger's Children, The Trip to Bountiful, The Traveling Lady, The Chase, The Last of the Thorntons and Talking Pictures, among others. He is an Academy Award winner for the screenplays "Tender Mercies" and "To Kill a Mockingbird." The 92-year-old Foote had been in Hartford, CT, where he was putting the finishing touches on Orphans' Home Cycle, when he died last March.
As with the current Hartford run, the Off-Broadway engagement will present the plays in repertory, as well as in one-day marathons. For tickets and more information visit SignatureTheatre.
