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[an error occurred while processing this directive] (none) The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote February 22 - June 24 Director: Libby Appel. Scenery: Richard L. Hay. Costumes: Constanza Romero. Lighting: Dawn Chiang. `The Trip to Bountiful' and `Three Sisters' Andrée Lanthier Mrs. Carrie Watts (Dee Maaske) waits at the bus station in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2001 production of Horton Foote's `The Trip to Bountiful.' Directed by Libby Appel; scenic design by Richard L. Hay; costume design by Constanza Romero; lighting design by Dawn Chiang. By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Although Horton Foote's "The Trip to Bountiful" and Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" are set a world apart, Libby Appel, the director of both plays and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's artistic director, said the plays share similar themes. "`The Trip to Bountiful is like the appetizer to the main course, which is `Three Sisters,'" Appel said. "`Three Sisters' is a much bigger play, with 12 or 13 characters across a much broader landscape. But there's a similarity in the longing and despair within the characters' souls." In "The Trip to Bountiful," the elderly Mrs. Carrie Watts, performed by Dee Maaske, yearns to escape Houston and return to her country home in Bountiful, Texas. Acting on that desire, she flees the tiny apartment she shares with her loving but ineffectual son and selfish daughter-in-law, and sets out on a journey home. Feeling trapped in a provincial Russian town, the three Prozorov sisters also yearn for home, but never shake off the inertia that keeps them from returning to Moscow. Appel shared her thoughts on the two plays and their authors in an interview. Why did you choose to direct The Trip to Bountiful and Three Sisters for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival? I picked "The Trip to Bountiful" because I wanted to do a piece tailored to Dee Maaske. I think she is truly a superb actress. I wanted to give her the challenge and the thrill of a play like that. Also, we had never done Horton Foote. I felt he was one of the masters of the 20th Century and it was important to show his work at the Festival. I happen to love the play. It's a true, honest piece about people in ordinary circumstances. As for "Three Sisters," I've been wanting to do it all my life. I'm a great devotee of Chekhov's work. I've directed all of his plays except "Three Sisters" and I've studied him since age 16. What was it about Dee Maaske that suited her for the lead role in The Trip to Bountiful? Dee is a great actress. It's the story of a woman who is conflicted because of her love for her son, but she has difficulties living in a small two room apartment with her daughter in law. It's a two room apartment - not a two bedroom apartment. She's so anxious to go home. She's a woman who goes through an incredible journey, and finds out that home lies in nature and inside herself. Dee has the depth of intelligence and experience to really understand this woman. The reason we are doing it in the small theater (the Black Swan) was because I wanted to put the play under a microscope. I wanted people to be able to see the moment to moment thought processes of this character. Mrs. Carrie Watts takes action and travels back home, while the three sisters never attempt to return to Moscow. What accounts for the difference? I think one needs to understand that 100 years ago it was not so easy for a woman to pick up and go wherever she desired. Moscow is more of a metaphor for what one hopes for in life. They are unable to make a change in their immediate circumstances. They never change. They lack the inner resources and are unable to move. Carrie Watts is the opposite. But there is a great deal of humor in the play ("Three Sisters"). In every good production, you want to recognize yourself in it and find out a truth about yourself. One wants to experience a play as one experiences a beautiful piece of music or an expressionistic painting. There's delight in the mode of expression itself. I hope people walk away delighted and thrilled from seeing a great work of art, and recognize the courage it takes to change your circumstances. I think the plays speak for themselves. Both examine the human soul in ways that are profound and enlightening. Both create a kind of perfect song, although it's much more complex in "Three Sisters." Chekhov was a tremendous humanist. He understands people's foibles and their eccentricities, but he also understands their intelligence, hopes, aches and desires. He speaks with truth, not with judgment. He doesn't label anyone a villain. He's a craftsman, like a painter who uses brushstrokes of color that come together. Things may seem inconsequential, but they come together. Through the process of watching the play, you and the character make discoveries together. Horton Foote works in a similar way, but he's not as interested as Chekhov in so large a panorama of people. He is not quite as perfectly controlled as Chekhov is. Sometimes here and there Horton Foote is melodramatic. When Callie Davis (Watts' girlhood friend) dies the day before Watts arrives, there's a little bit of melodrama... With Chekhov, threads of language and character make a kind of tapestry of the event without a lot of things happening. You understand it without any huge melodramatic event. Horton Foote has had more of an influence on screen-writing than theater. His screenplays are so honest and simple in the best sense of the word... There's always a delicacy and beauty and almost Shaker simplicity, although of course he is not a Shaker. They are exquisite in their simplicity. They are both poets of the theater. Even though they didn't write verse, their writing is as carefully composed and rhythmic as lyric poetry. 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