Selected One Act Plays of Horton Foote - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0870742744 ISBN 13: 9780870742743

Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ Pr, 1989

Synopsis

Gathers seventeen short plays set in the small Texas town of Harrison

About this title

Review

The works of Horton Foote may be more famous than the man: This native Texan authored the Academy Award-winning screenplays for "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) and "render Mercies" (1983). Television viewers have seen his scripts (including well-received adaptations of Faulkner stories) since he began writing for Kraft Playhouse in 1947. Foote also had a distinguished stage career with "Me Trip to Bountiful" (1953), his most highly regarded play (especially since the recent film version). This selection of one-act plays exhibits all of Foote's professional skills, but also reveals many of his flaws, such as his wooden language and rather simplistic, non-adventuresome plots. The collection gathers seventeen plays produced from 1952 to 1988. While they lack the readability of great drama, they retain importance as portraits of Foote's small-town southern community and possess historical relevance in their relationship to the careers of actors such as Robert Duvall. Young actors often use Foote's clear-cut scenes for audition material. The book is beautifully edited by Gerald C. Wood, a professor of English at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee, with useful introductions to each play and production notes. -- From Independent Publisher

From Library Journal

Foote is here represented by a generous selection of one-act plays, eight from the 1950s, and nine from the 1980s. He wrote mostly screenplays and larger stage dramas in the intervening years. Like his screenplays and stage plays, these pieces are often set in the mythic town of Harrison, Texas, and develop themes that we have come to expect from him. These meticulously observed studies of family tension, the need for belonging to a place and a people, the pressures of personal and cultural change, the inner life of people threatened with the erosion of love and identity, are fine examples of the playwright's art. They show Foote's development towards open-ended plots, ambiguous emotion, and ever deeper insight. Beautifully edited by Wood, and recommended for public and academic libraries.
- Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0870742744
• ISBN 13: 9780870742743
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 507
• Editor: Wood Gerald C.