‘The Trip to Bountiful’
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 months, 2 weeks AGO
Carrie Watts, played by Rosalee Chamberlain (left), and her daughter-in-law Jessy May, played by Michelle Miller, are at loggerheads again in the Masquers Theater production of “The Trip to Bountiful,” opening June 12.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Jessie May (right, played by Machelle Miller) tells her husband Ludie (played by Jason Noble) that she wants to get out of the apartment more in the Masquers Theater production of “The Trip to Bountiful.”
Carrie Watts (played by Rosalee Chamberlain) rifles through her daughter-in-law’s dresser in the Masquers Theater production of “The Trip to Bountiful,” opening June 12.
Thelma (Natalie Vieira, left) and Carrie (Rosalee Chamberlain) get to know one another on the bus in the Masquers production of "The Trip to Bountiful," opening June 12.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | June 4, 2026 3:20 AM
SOAP LAKE — Home, and what it means, is at the heart of the Masquers Theater’s production of “The Trip to Bountiful,” written by playwright Horton Foote, opening June 12.
“The show is very nostalgic,” said director Jesse Huntwork. “It’s about going back to your hometown, your home roots, and remembering where you came from.”
Carrie Watts (played by Rosalee Chamberlain) lives with her son Ludie (Jason Noble) and his wife Jessie May (Machelle Miller) in a small Houston, Texas, apartment in the post-World War II era, but none of them are really happy with the arrangement. Jessie May carps constantly at her mother-in-law, who responds passive-aggressively, while Ludie is forced to play the peacemaker.
“They pretty much use her to clean house and cash her Social Security check, and she’s going crazy,” Huntwork said.
More than anything, Carrie wants to return to her hometown of Bountiful, which she and Ludie left many years earlier so he could get an education. Unknown to Carrie, Bountiful’s population has either died or left and only a few dilapidated buildings remain. Ludie and Jessie May know this, and repeatedly foil Carrie’s attempts to escape the apartment and return home.
One day, while Ludie and Jessie May are out of the house, Carrie takes her check and buys a train ticket to the nearest town to Bountiful that the ticket seller has heard of and sets out to find where she came from.
“She’s really wanting to go back and feel the purpose she had before they moved to the city,” Chamberlain said.
The interplay between Jessie May and Carrie is intense, and Huntwork said he tried to ramp that up.
“I wanted there to be a lot of tension between the daughter-in-law and the mother,” he said. “I added some goodies between the two subliminally that complement their characters’ hatred for each other.”
This isn’t Huntwork’s first stint in the director’s chair at the Masquers, but in the past he’s stuck to comedy, he said, and “The Trip to Bountiful” is a very emotional drama.
“I find it easier (to direct drama),” he said. “The thing with comedies is that the timing has to be perfect, how they deliver the line has to be a specific way, how they move…With this I’ve had to dial it back and I find myself sometimes overdirecting like it was a comedy, and I have to rein myself in.”
“There are times that it gives you chills and it sets you back a little bit,” Chamberlain said. “Especially when the dialogue and the feelings and the emotions are right. I advise people to bring a hankie.”
For Huntwork, the nostalgia and the call to return home are deeply personal, he said, because he grew up in Soap Lake and moved to Seattle three years ago.
“As someone who recently left, this is my little ode to Soap Lake,” he said. “Even though I may not be here every day, living and working and breathing, this is still and forever will be my Bountiful.”
Tickets and show times are available at masquers.com.
Cast:
Carrie Watts: Rosalee Chamberlain
Ludie Watts: Jason Noble
Jessie May Watts: Machelle Miller
Thelma: Natalie Vieira
Ticket Man No. 1: Miles Plagerman
Ticket Man No. 2: Virginia Stearns
Roy: Justice Duran
Sheriff: Darryl Pheasant
Jessie May (right, played by Machelle Miller) tells her husband Ludie (played by Jason Noble) that she wants to get out of the apartment more in the Masquers Theater production of “The Trip to Bountiful.”
Carrie Watts (played by Rosalee Chamberlain) rifles through her daughter-in-law’s dresser in the Masquers Theater production of “The Trip to Bountiful,” opening June 12.
Thelma (Natalie Vieira, left) and Carrie (Rosalee Chamberlain) get to know one another on the bus in the Masquers production of "The Trip to Bountiful," opening June 12.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”