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Academy Award Nominated Actress Cicely Tyson To Star In New Broadway Play 'Trip To Bountiful'

Academy Award nominated actress Cicely Tyson is set to star in a new Broadway Play "Trip to Bountiful" directed by Michael Wilson on April 23 according to the New York Times.

Tyson will be the main attraction in the 1953 drama by Horton Foote. This marks a return to Broadway for the New York actress, who has been away from the stage for 30 years.

The play will run for 14 weeks and will begin previews on March 31 at the Stephen Sondheim Theater.

The 78-year old actress will play Carrie Watts, an elderly woman who dreams of returning to her hometown of Bountiful, Tex., before she dies.

Foote's original piece was first produced as a teleplay on NBC in 1953, starring Lillian Gish as Carrie Watts, "The Trip to Bountiful" had its Broadway premiere later that year with the same cast.

Foote adapted the play into a 1985 film starring Geraldine Page, who won an Academy Award. In 2005, Lois Smith starred in an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival at the Signature Theater.

In her career, Tyson has worked in theatre, film and television. Her last Broadway performance was in a rendition of "The Corn is Green," in 1983.

Tyson has also acted in "The Blacks," in 1961 by Jean Genet and "Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright" (1962), with Alvin Ailey.

One of her most brightest moments came when she was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1972 film "Sounder" She followed up that achievement by taking home two Emmy Awards for "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman."

According to The Times, a spokesman for the production said the Watts family members will be played by African-American actors, but it will not be an all-black cast.

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