Some community theater groups see summertime as an excuse to perform Shakespeare out of doors, or to lure in the crowds with musical comedies. Up in Elka Park, however, the troupe that calls itself Horton by the Stream dedicates itself to a more unusual mission: reviving the stageworks of Horton Foote, a 20th-century Texan popularly known for his Oscar-winning screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies.
Foote (shown above) also won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, in 1995, for The Young Man from Atlanta. Each summer for the past 24 years, Horton by the Stream has been doing its part to ensure that this important American dramatist is not forgotten. This weekend is your chance to familiarize yourself with Convicts, a segment of Foote’s nine-play Orphans’ Home Cycle, set in 1904. Convicts was made into a 1991 film, directed by Peter Masterson and starring Robert Duvall, Lukas Haas and James Earl Jones.
Greg Grove directs the Horton by the Stream production of Convicts, with performances beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, July 28 and 29. Admission is by a suggested donation of $10. The venue is Carver’s Barn Outdoor Stage, located at 209 Elka Park Road in Tannersville. Turn right at the Elka Park Post Office, up Greenhill Road to the first property on the left. To find out more, call (646) 206-7172 or visit www.hortonbythestream.org.
Join the family! 
