The metroplex’s Horton Foote Festival begins on Monday with a birthday party for what would be the Texas playwright’s 95th birthday.

SMU’s contribution to the event will be an exhibit dedicated to Foote’s writing process.

Foote was an acclaimed writer who wrote more than 60 screenplays, plays and television scripts.

He won a Pulitzer Prize for his play “The Young Man from Atlanta” and Oscars for his screenplays for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Tender Mercies.”

In the later years of his life, he served as a visting distinguished dramatist at Baylor University until he died in 2009.

In 2004, Baylor launched the first Horton Foote playwriting festival.

Kevin Moriarity, artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center, generated the momentum for this festival, which features productions of his plays by seven professional theater companies, SMU’s exhibit and several other events and presentations throughout the area.

The exhibit at the DeGolyer Library will contain elements important to his compositions from his steno pad to annotated scripts (including his copy of “To Kill a Mockingbird”), movie stills and both of his Oscars.

The DeGolyer Library has also published “Farewell: Remembering Horton Foote.”

Horton Foote: Photographs and Manuscripts opened March 1 and runs through May 1 at the DeGolyer Library. Admission is free.

For the full list of events visit hortonfootefestival.com.