Feb. 28–March 3: The Trip to Bountiful

The Michael J. and Mary Anne Freeman Theatre and Dance Series at Samford University will present Horton Foote’s "The Trip to Bountiful" Feb. 28–March 2 at 7:30 p.m., and March 3, at 2:30 p.m. All performances will be in Samford’s Harrison Theatre. Stage veteran Margie Bolding, the Department of Theatre and Dance’s 2013 Guest Artist, will take the lead role of Carrie Watts.

"The Trip to Bountiful" is the masterpiece of one of America’s most honored and beloved playwrights. Foote’s signature voice of love and humanity permeates this beautiful family drama set in rural Texas in the 1950s.

Foote, who died in 2009, received a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Young Man From Atlanta, and won Academy Awards and Writer’s Guild of America honors for his "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Tender Mercies" screenplays. His screenplay for "The Trip to Bountiful" earned him a third Academy Award nomination. Foote was honored with the Nation Medal of Arts in 2000.

Margie Bolding and co-star John Nixon will long be remembered in Birmingham theater lore for portraying an interracial couple for Town & Gown’s Clark Theatre production of "Othello" during some of the darkest months of the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham.

Bolding went on to study with Elaine Stretch and legendary acting coach Lee Strasburg. She received broad critical acclaim for her portrayal of Montgomery native Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald in the Off-Broadway production of "I Don’t Want To Be Zelda Anymore." She has dedicated her Samford performance to sister Bonnie Bolding, a devoted and generous Samford alumna.

Tickets for The Trip to Bountiful are $12 (adults,) $9 (55+) and $6 (students/children) at (205) 726-2853 or at www.samford.edu/arts.