Sam Shepard "True West"

 

"I didn't go out of my way to get into this movie stuff. I think of myself as a writer."

Shepard about appearing in different movies

"I like to yodel and dance and fuck a lot. Writing is neat because you do it on a very physical level. Just like rock and roll. A lot of people think playwrights are some special brand of intellectual fruitcake with special awareness to special problems that confront the world at large. I think that's a crock of shit."

1971 program note to "Cowboy Mouth"

 

Biography Notes

Plays

1943

November 5th; born as Samuel Shepard Rogers VII

 

1950

attends Lincoln Elementary School in Pasadena

writes his first story "The Finding of Fang"

1955

moves to Duarte and attends high school

 

1961

enrolls in Mount San Antonio Junior College

 

1962

on Tour with Bishop's Company Repetory Players

 

1963

moves to New York’s East Village

 

1964

 

Premier of "Cowboys" and "The Rock Garden" at Theatre Genesis in New York

1965

 

"Dog" and "Rocking Chair" at La MaMa; "Up to Thursday" and "4-H Club" staged by Albee's Playwright Unit; "Chicago"again at Theatre Genesis and "Icarus's Mother" at Caffe Cino

1966

wins 3 Obies

"Red Cross" at Judson Poet's Theatre; "Fourteen hundred Thousand" at Firehouse Theatre in Minneapolis

1967

receives grants from University of Minnesota, Yale, and Rockefeller Foundation

"La Turista" at the American Place Theatre; "Melodrama Play" at La MaMa; "Cowboys#2" at Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; "Forensic & the Navigators" at Theatre Genesis

1968

receives Guggenheim Fellowship; he performs with rock band "Holy Modal Rounders"

cowrites screenplay for "Me and My Brother"; contributes to script for "Zabriskie Point"

1969

weds O-lan Johnson

La MaMa tours "The Holy Ghostly"; "The Unseen Hand" at La MaMa; "La Turista" at London's Royal Court Theatre

1970

appears in "Brand X"

"Zabriskie Point" released; "Operation Sidewinder" at Lincoln Center; "Shaved Splits" at La MaMa

1971

moves to London

"Mad Dog Blues" at Theatre Genesis; "Cowboys Mouth" and "Back Bog Beast Bait" at the American Place Theatre

1972

 

"The Tooth of Crime" at Open Space Theatre

1973

publishes a book of poetry "Hawk Moon"; receives an Obie for "The Tooth of Crime"

"Blue Bitch" on BBC; "Nightwalk" for Open Theatre

1974

returns to California

"Geography of a Horse Dreamer" at Royal Court; "Little Ocean" at Hampstead Theatre Club; "The Tooth of Crime" and "Action" at Royal Court

1975

tours with "Rolling Thunder Review"

"Action" and "Killer's Head" at American Place Theatre; "Action" at Magic Theatre in San Francisco

 

   

1976

joins Magic Theatre Company; receives Creative Arts Medal from Brandeis University; receives Rockefeller Grant

"Angel City" at Magic Theatre; "Suicide in B-Flat" at Yale Repetory

1977

publishes "Rolling Thunder Logbook"

"Inacoma" at Magic Theatre; "Curse of the Starving Class" at Royal Court

1978

appears in "Days of Heaven"

"Curse of the Starving Class" at Public Theatre; "Seduced" at Trinitiy Square Repetory; "Buried Child" and "Tongues" at Magic Theatre

1979

wins Pulitzer Price for "Buried Child"; writes libretto for "Jacaranda"

"Savage/Love" at Magic Theatre

1980

appears in "Resurrection"

"True West" at Magic Theatre

1981

appears in "Raggedy Man"; meets Jessica Lange

 

1982

publishes "Motel Chronicles"; appears in "Frances"

 

1983

appears in "The Right Stuff"; receives Academy Award Nomination; father dies; divorce

"Fool for Love" at Magic Theatre

1984

writes screenplay for "Paris, Texas"; wins Golden Palm Award in Cannes; appears "Country"

PBS broadcasts "True West"

1985

appears in "Fool for Love"

"The War in Heaven" airs on radio; "A Lie of the Mind" opens Off-Broadway

1986

appears in "Crimes of the Heart"; has daughter Hannah with Lange

 

1987

publishes "True Dylan" in Esquire; appears in "Baby Boom"; has son Samuel with Lange

 

1988

releases "Far North"

 

1989

appears in "Steel Magnolias"

 

1991

appears in "The Voyager", "Defenseless", "Bright Angel" and "Homo Faber"

"States of Shock" at American Place Theatre

1992

appears in "Thunderheart"

 

1993

appears in "The Pelican Brief"

 

1994

appears in "Safe Passage"; releases "Silent Tongue"; is inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame

"Simpatico" at Public Theatre

1995

 

"Buried Child" at the Steppenwolf

1996

publishes "Cruising Paradise"; season of Shepard plays at the Signature Theatre

"Buried Child" on Broadway

1998

appears in "The Only Thrill"

 

1999

appears in "Texas", "Hamlet", "Purgatory", "Curtain Call", "Dash and Lilly" and "Snow Falling on Cedars"

 

2000

appears in "The Pledge" and "All The Pretty Horses"

 

2001

up to come : "Just to Be Together"

 

Literature:

  1. Wade, Leslie A.: Sam Shepard and the American Theatre – Praeger Publishers, 1997
    ISBN: 0-313-28944-1.
  2. Rou Mottram: Inner Landscapes. The Theater of Sam Shepard – University of Missouri Press, 1984
    ISBN: 0-8262-0452-X.
  3. Leonard Wilcox [ed.] Rereading Shepard – St. Matin’s Press, 1993
    ISBN: 0-312-07479-4.
  4. Ellen Oumano: Sam Shepard. The Life and Work of an American Dreamer – St. Martin’s Press, 1986
    ISBN: 0-312-69839-9.
  5. http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/theatre_dance/Shepard/shepard.html
  6. http://www.stage-door.org/shepard.html
  7. http://www.truewestbroadway.com
  8. http://www.oceanstar.com/patti/bio/shepard2.htm
  9. http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc41.html