Dear Friends,
I am excited to be back at Charleton Stage as a guest director for The Trip to Bountiful, one of my very favorite plays. While I think everyone knows such well known and moving dramas as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Miracle Worker, and The Sound of Music, the American Theatre is full of hidden gems, amazing plays whose titles are not as well known. The Trip to Bountiful is certainly one of these wonderful hidden gems— despite having won numerous Tony, Emmy and Academy Awards over the years. The Trip to Bountiful is certainly a show not to be missed.
And the feisty lead character of 80 something year old, Mrs. Carrie Watts is one of the great roles in the American Theatre. Award-winning actors such as Geraldine Page and Cecily Tyson won acclaim for this role and here at Charleston Stage we have the wonderful 84-year-old veteran actress, Samille Basler, in this lead role. You will remember Samille from such memorable roles in my plays Helium and Gershwin at Folly, bringing side-splitting laughter to memorable comedies such as You Can’t Take it With You and Blithe Spirit, and moving audiences with her powerful performancesin The Glass Menagerie and To Kill A Mockingbird. Samille’s performance of Mrs. Carrie Watts in The Trip to Bountiful is one not to be missed.
I urge you to get your tickets today to this marvelous play by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Horton Foote, best known for his Oscar winning screenplays for To Kill A Mockingbird and Tender Mercies.
It is a joy to return to my director’s chair once more, joining Samille and her terrific casemates as they bring this award-winning hidden gem to the Dock Street Theatre stage for the first time.
Get those tickets today!
Hope to see you at the theatre!
Julian Wiles, Founder and Director Emeritus
By HORTON FOOTE
Direction by JULIAN WILES
Associate Sponsors:
Hewitt Family Fund of Coastal Community Foundation of SC
Dr. Del and Linda Schutte
Follow 80-year-old Mama Watts as she sets off on the adventure of a lifetime, determined to run away from her son’s cramped city apartment and controlling daughter-in-law and return to her home town of Bountiful, TX one last time. But what will she do when she’s stuck at a train station in the middle of the night, finding out the last resident of Bountiful, TX died two days ago? Watch as Mrs. Watts leans on new friends, fond memories and her steadfast faith to sing and dance her way through troubling times. This heartfelt Tony award-winning classic by Horton Foote, author of the award-winning screenplay To Kill a Mockingbird, asks the age-old questions; what is home, and can you ever really go home again?
Performances run February 28th – March 17th. For tickets, visit CharlestonStage.com.