The Trip to Bountiful

Left to right: Sandie Cond, Anne-Marie Bergman and Bryan McDonald.

The moving story of Carrie Watts, an elderly woman who longs to escape the cramped Houston apartment where she lives with her son and daughter-in-law. Her son Ludie's health has made their lives difficult for the past couple of years, and though he does his best for his mother, he can't give her what she really wants. Her authoritarian daughter-in-law Jessie Mae resents her presence.

Carrie simply wants to return to her beloved hometown of Bountiful, Texas, one final time before she dies. She has tried before and been brought back before she got out of Houston. Her family doesn't understand her need to see her home again.

Carrie gets to the bus station, befriends a young woman, and the new friends travel toward Bountiful together, but Carrie begins to learn that her beloved town isn’t the same as she remembered it.

Sandie Cond (left) and Heather Hayhow.

The Trip to Bountiful premiered on NBC television on March 1, 1953, starring Lillian Gish. It subsequently premiered on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre in November 1953 for a run of 39 performances. The play was produced Off-Broadway by the Signature Theatre Company at the Peter Norton Space in 2005, and revived on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre from April to October 2013. The Trip to Bountiful was adapted into a 1985 film starring Geraldine Page, won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

Horton Foote

Horton Foote was born in Wharton, Texas, in 1916. moved to California, where he studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1931–32.

He began his career as an actor, but was also writing plays, and after getting better reviews for his plays than for his acting, focused on writing. He became a leading writer for American television in the 1950s, and The Trip to Bountiful was originally written for television.

He wrote many stage plays, screenplays and television scripts. His play The Young Man From Atlanta won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and his nine-play Orphan's Home Cycle won a special Drama Desk Award. He is also notable for writing the screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird, which won an Academy Award.

Foote died in 2009 in Hartford, Conn.

We would like to acknowledge that this production takes place on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples. We honour and give thanks to the land, its inhabitants and their enduring cultures.

Admission $20 (plus Grand Theatre surcharge). Tickets available through Kingston Grand Box Office, 613-530-2050 and online, until 2 p.m. on day of performance, and at the door (cash, debit, Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay or Android Pay) on performance nights when available. Seniors and members $16 at the door on Thursdays only. Children and students $10.

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