Dallas/Fort Worth Theaters to Collaborate on Six-Week Horton Foote Festival in Spring 2011

In the spring of 2011, theaters in Dallas and Fort Worth, along with other arts organizations and institutions, will launch six-week festival devoted to the late Texas playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News.

The festival will begin after a celebration of what would have been Foote’s 95th birthday on March 14, and will involve at least 10 professional theater companies, each of which will produce at least one of his plays. Companies scheduled to participate include Dallas Theater Center, Theatre Three, WaterTower Theatre, Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, Kitchen Dog Theater, Uptown Players, WingSpan Theatre Company, One Thirty Productions, Stage West, and Circle Theatre.

In addition to the theatrical events, Southern Methodist University’s DeGolyer Library, the repository of Foote’s papers, will schedule a major exhibit in connection with the festival. Similarly, the Dallas Film Society will show a retrospective of Foote’s films, which include his Academy Award-winning To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. The Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts and Letters Live and the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts will also participate.

Specifics about each theater’s contribution to the Festival will be announced as plans for the coming season are finalized.