Dividing the Estate

"Dividing the Estate," nominated last year for two Tony Awards including Best Play, is the selection for Garret Players' major production this spring. Horton Foote, who passed away one year ago, wrote this dark comedy. It focuses upon siblings in Texas during 1987 who attempt to persuade the family matriarch to divvy up the property before her death. The play is quite contemporary, richly funny, yet moving and important. Our country, in the year 2010, is very much in the midst of fiscal crisis.

Foote wrote the screenplay for Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Young Man from Atlanta." He is currently represented in New York City at Signature Theatre with "The Orphans' Home Cycle."

"Dividing the Estate" takes place during a period when oil prices were on the decline in the small, fictional Texas town of Harrison. The playwright oftentimes brings to life personalities based upon people he once knew. This is play driven by its characters. This is Director Fred Sokol's sixth production for AIC.