Biography of the AuthorBorn Samuel Shepard Rogers III in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, he worked on a ranch as a teenager. His father, Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr., was a teacher and farmer who served in the United States Army Air Forces as a bomber pilot during World War II; Shepard has characterized him as "a drinking man, a dedicated alcoholic". His mother, Jane Elaine (ne Schook), was a teacher and a native of Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from Duarte High School in 1961, he briefly studied Agriculture at Mt. San Antonio College, where he became enamored with the oeuvre of Samuel Beckett, jazz, and abstract expressionism. Shepard soon dropped out to join a touring repertory group, the Bishops Company.When Shepard first arrived in New York, he roomed with Charlie Mingus Jr., a friend from his high school days and the son of famous jazz musician Charles Mingus. Then he lived with actress Joyce Aaron. From 1969 to 1984 he was married to actress O-Lan Jones, with whom he has one son, Jesse Mojo Shepard (born 1970). In 1970-71, he was involved in an extramarital affair with Patti Smith, who remained unaware of Shepard's identity as a multiple Obie Award-winning playwright until it was finally divulged to her by Jackie Curtis. According to Smith, "Me and his wife still even liked each other. I mean, it wasn't like committing adultery in the suburbs or something."Shepard met Academy-Award-winning actress Jessica Lange on the set of the film Frances, in which they were both acting. He moved in with her in 1983, and they were together for nearly thirty years. They separated in 2010. They have two children, Hannah Jane (born 1985) and Samuel Walker Shepard (born 1987). In 2003, Jesse Shepard wrote a book of short stories that was published in San Francisco, and his father appeared together with him at a reading to introduce the book. Although he played the legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager, in The Right Stuff, and he allowed the real Chuck Yeager to take him up in a jet plane in 1982 when he was preparing for his role as Yeager, Shepard has had a long-standing aversion to flying. Shepard described his flying phobia as a source for a character in his 1966 play, Icarus's Mother. He went through an airliner crash in the film Voyager (1991), and according to one account, he vowed never to fly again after a very rocky trip on an airliner coming back from Mexico in the 1960s.In the early morning hours of January 3, 2009, Shepard was arrested and charged with speeding and drunken driving in Normal, Illinois. He pleaded guilty to both charges on February 11, 2009 and was sentenced to 24 months probation, alcohol education classes, and 100 hours of community service. His 50-year friendship with Johnny Dark was the subject of the 2013 documentary, "Shepard & Dark" by Treva Wurmfeld. A collection of Shepard and Dark's correspondence, Two Prospectors (ISBN 978-0-292-73582-8), was also published that year.After securing a position as a busboy at The Village Gate upon arriving in New York City, Shepard became involved in the Off-Off-Broadway theater scene in 1962 through Ralph Cook, the club's head waiter. Although his plays would go on to be staged at several Off-Off-Broadway venues, he was most closely connected with Cook's Theatre Genesis, housed at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in Manhattan's East Village. Most of his initial writing was for the stage; after winning six Obie Awards between 1966-1968, Shepard emerged as a viable screenwriter with Robert Frank's Me and My Brother (1968) and Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970). Several of Shepard's early plays (including Red Cross [1966] and La Turista [1967]) were directed by Jacques Levy. A habitu of the Chelsea Hotel scene of the era, he contributed to Kenneth Tynan's ribald Oh! Calcutta! (1969) and drummed sporadically from 1967 through 1971 with psychedelic folk band The Holy Modal Rounders, appearing on Indian War Whoop (1967) and The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders (1968).Shepard's early science fiction play The Unseen Hand (1969) would influence Richard O'Brien's stage musical The Rocky Horror Show. Cowboy Moutha collaboration with then-lover, Patti Smithwas staged for one night at The American Place Theater in April 1971, providing early exposure for the future punk rock singer.After ending his relationship with Patti Smith, Shepard relocated with his wife and son to London in the early 1970s. Returning to America in 1975, he moved to the 20-acre Flying Y Ranch in Mill Valley, California where he raised a young colt named Drum and used to ride double with his young son on an appaloosa named Cody. He wrote plays out of his house and He served for a semester as Regents' Professor of Drama at the University of California, Davis.Shepard accompanied Bob Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975 as the ostensible screenwriter of the surrealist Renaldo and Clara (1978) that emerged from the tour; because much of the film was improvised, Shepard's services were seldom utilized. His diary of the tour (Rolling Thunder Logbook) was published by Penguin Books in 1978. A decade later, Dylan and Shepard co-wrote the 11-minute "Brownsville Girl", included on Dylan's Knocked Out Loaded (1986) album and later compilations.In 1975, he was named playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre, where many of his notable works (including his Family Trilogy: Buried Child [1978], Curse of the Starving Class [1978], and True West [1980]) received their premier productions. Some critics expand this grouping to a quintet which includes Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind (1985).Shepard began his acting career in earnest when he was cast as the handsome land baron in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978), opposite Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. This led to other important films and roles, including the role of "Cal", Ellen Burnstyn's love interest in the film "Resurrection" (1980) and most notably his portrayal of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983), earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. By 1986, one of his plays, Fool for Love, was being made into a film directed by Robert Altman, in which Shepard played the lead role; his play A Lie of the Mind was Off-Broadway with an all-star cast including Harvey Keitel and Geraldine Page; he was living with Jessica Lange; and he was working steadily as a film actorall of which put him on the cover of Newsweek magazine.Throughout the years, Shepard has done a considerable amount of teaching on writing plays and other aspects of theatre. His classes and seminars have occurred at various theatre workshops, festivals, and universities.Shepard was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1986. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986. In 2000, Shepard decided to repay a debt of gratitude to the Magic Theatre by staging his play The Late Henry Moss as a benefit in San Francisco. The cast included Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Cheech Marin. The limited, three-month run was sold out.In 2001, Shepard had a notable role of General William F. Garrison in the box office hit movie Black Hawk Down. Although he was cast in a supporting role, it reinvigorated interest in Shepard among the public and critics alike.He performed Spalding Gray's final monologue Life Interrupted for its audio release through Macmillan Audio in 2006.In 2007, Shepard contributed banjo to Patti Smith's cover of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on her album Twelve.Although many artists have had an influence on Shepard's work, one of the most significant has been actor-director Joseph Chaikin, a veteran of the Living Theatre and founder of a group called the Open Theatre. The two have often worked together on various projects, and Shepard acknowledges that Chaikin has been a valuable mentor.A revival of A Lie of the Mind in New York was staged at the same time as his 2010 play, Ages of the Moon, also opened there. Reflecting on the two plays, Shepard said that the older, longer play feels to him "awkward all of the characters are in a fractured place, broken into pieces, and the pieces dont really fit together," while the newer play "is like a Porsche. ... Its sleek, it does exactly what you want it to do, and it can speed up but also shows off great brakes. The revival and new play also coincided with the publication of the collection Day out of Days: Stories (book title echoing a film-making term), also by Shepard. The book includes "short stories, poems and narrative sketches ... that developed from dozens of leather-bound notebooks Shepard has carried with him over the years. In 2011, Shepard starred in the film Blackthorn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Shepard

SummaryBuried ChildThe play begins when the rain is pouring heavily and Dodge sits on the sofa watching TV; he smokes often and has a whiskey bottle stashed under the sofa seat. He coughs violently until Halie, Dodges wife, tells him to take a pill to stop his coughing. Halie remembers once going to horse races with a breeder man on a New Year before she and Dodge were married, which makes Dodge jealous. She says she is going out with Father Dewis and that Dodge should ask their eldest son, Tilden, if he wants anything. Dodge coughs again and call for Tilden.Tilden enters from the kitchen with his arms full of corn cobs. Dodge asks where it came from, since there hasnt been any on the farmland. Tilden claims the back yard is full of corn. Tilden gets the stool and pail and husks the corn while Dodge continues to watch TV.Halie comes downstairs dressed in black mourning clothes and leaves money on the kitchen table in case Dodge needs anything later. She is annoyed at the scattered corn husks and when Tilden says that he picked it from out back, she repeats Dodges assertion that there isnt any corn, and suspects he either stole or bought it. Tilden cries.Halie tells Dodge that Bradley, their son, will visit later to cut his hair but Dodge objects, saying his hair doesnt need cutting and Bradley doesnt belong in the house. Halie reminds him that Bradley is Dodges flesh and blood and he shouldnt say such things. Halie is visibly shaken when Dodge replies that his flesh and blood is buried in the back yard. As she leaves, she asks Dodge to stop Tilden going outside in the rain. Dodge changes the subject when Tilden asks why he said his flesh and blood is buried in the back yard. Dodge starts to cough uncontrollably when Tilden starts to go outside, so his son gives him some water and lays him on the sofa. When Dodge falls asleep, Tilden steals his whiskey, covers his father with the corn husks and goes outside. The one- legged Bradley, who cut off his own leg, enters, sees the corn, goes to Dodge, takes out a pair of clippers and starts to cut his hair.Later that night, it is still raining heavily. Vince, the grandson of the family, arrives together with his girlfriend, Shelly. They presumed the darkened house is empty. Vince goes upstairs to look for Halie while Shelly waits downstairs. Dodge wakes up and Shelly starts to explain why she is there, but Dodge doesnt respond. Vince comes back downstairs and sees Dodge but he doesnt recognize Vince: at first he thinks Vince is Tilden but later says that Tilden is looking after him. Dodge realizes that his whiskey has gone and starts shouting and pulling the cushions off the sofa. Shelly is unnerved and tells Vince she wants to leave, but Vince grabs her and force her to stay. Tilden appears in the kitchen doorway, his arms full of carrots.Tilden does not recognize Vince and does not answer Shellys question about whether he is Vinces father. She offers to hold the carrots, but Tilden suggests they could actually cut and cook then. Dodge is determined that someone will get him a new bottle of whiskey before Halie comes back. Vince, incredulous that Tilden still doesnt recognize him, tries to jog Dodge and Tildens memories by performing some of his childhood party tricks. But it doesnt work, so Vince agrees to go into town to get the whiskey. Shelly is distressed at the idea of being left alone with Tilden and Dodge, but Vince insists on going. He takes the money from the kitchen table and leaves.Tilden is fascinated with Shellys fur coat, so she lets him stroke it and offers it to him. He starts to tell her about a tiny baby that went missing, but Dodge tries to stop him, and doing so, falls to the floor. Tilden stops Shelly from running away, saying that Dodge is the only person who knows where the baby is. Bradley appears and asks Shelly if she is with Tilden. Bradley is so intimidating to both of them, that Tilden runs out of the room, leaving Bradley alone with Shelly. He forces her to open her mouth, and he slides his fingers in and holds them there. Next morning, the sun comes out. Bradley sleeps on the sofa and his wooden leg is on the floor beside it. Shelly admits that she was so frightened of Bradley that she hid outside until he was asleep and then crept upstairs to sleep in Halies room.Halie and father Dewis arrive. Halie now wears a bright yellow dress, her arms are full of yellow roses. They are both quite drunk and giggling. Dodge hides under Shellys coat, insisting that she doesnt leave him alone with them. Halie is embarrassed by the state of the house and apologizes while removing Shellys coat from Dodge and draping it over the wooden leg. Dodge claims to be cold without the coat; so Halie removes the blanket form Bradley to give to Dodge. This wakes Bradley and he demands his blanket back. Halie slaps him, then turns her attention to Shelly to ask what she is doing in the house. Halie realizes that Tilden is missing and starts to look for him. But Shelly is upset and grabs Bradleys leg to gain attention. Halie goes to call the police to get rid of Shelly, but Bradley doesnt want police in the house. When Shelly accuses the family of taking their affairs out back to settle their problems, Halie tells her to shut up. Dodge decides to tell Shelly the family secret, despite objections from Halie and Bradley. He reveals that Halie had a baby long after the other boys were born after they had stopped sleeping together. He implies that the child was conceived in an incestuous relationship between Tilden and Halie, and so he killed the baby by drowning it. Halie denounces this as lies.Suddenly Vince bursts on to the porch, drunk, throwing glass bottles and shouting at the people inside. Shelly and Halie try to speak to him without success. Vince now claims not to recognise anyone. Halie and Father Dewis go upstairs, Halie remembering what a lovely child Vincent was. Shelly puts down Bradleys leg and tries to go out and persuade Vince to leave, but he yells at her to stay inside and cuts through a window screen to enter the house. Bradley slides off the sofa and crawls towards his leg. Dodge starts to declare his will, leaving the house to Vince. Vince refuses Shellys pleas to leave, saying that he has just inherited a house. She leaves alone. Vince torments Bradley with his leg, making him follows it out of the house and shuts him outside. Father Dewis advises Vince to go upstairs and see his grandmother. Vince refuses and Father Dewis also leaves. Dodge has died unnoticed. Vince covers him with the blanket and places the yellow roses on him. He puts on Dodges cap and lies down on the sofa. Halie starts to talk from upstairs to Vince, presuming that he is Dodge, and tells him that Tilden was right that the backyard is full of vegetables and the sun is out. Tilden appears at the kitchen door holding the remains of the baby buried in the back yard. He walks across the room and up the stairs, towards Halie.

The Curse of the Starving ClassThe play begins when Wesley is loading the broken pieces of the familys front door into a wheelbarrow when his mother, Ella, enters. Ella says that Wesley shouldnt be cleaning up when it was his father who broke the door, but Wesley doesnt want to live with the debris until Weston returns. Wesley and Ella discuss the events of the night before: Wesley is upset that the police came to their house, but Ella insists that Weston was going to kill her and she needed protection. Ella begins to make breakfast while Wesley narrates the events of the previous night. He leaves, and Emma enters, wearing a 4-h uniform and carrying hand-made chart depicting the proper way to cut up a frying chicken. When Ella asks about the charts, Emma reminds her that she is giving a demonstration at the fair and a start looking in the refrigerator for her demonstration chickenwhich, it turns out, Ella has boiled. Emma is furious and storms out. Wesley re-enters and starts yelling to the offstage Emma about her chicken. The three of them begin arguing about whether they are members of the starving class, while Wesley urinates on Emmas charts. Emma then yells that she is going to take the familys horse and run away. Ella tells Wesley that she is planning to sell their house and use the money to go to Europe. Wesley is angry and leaves. Emma comes back in, covered in mud from being dragged across the corral by the horse. She tells Ella about her dream of going to Mexico and becoming a mechanic. Ella leaves and Taylor enters. Taylor explains that he is Ellas lawyer. Emma interrogates him and threatens him with her fathers wrath until Wesley comes in, carrying a lamb, and sets up a small enclosure for the lamb in the kitchen. Emma, Wesley, and Taylor converse tensely until Ella returns. Emma leaves, upset about Ellas plan to sell the house, and Taylor and Ella depart for a business meeting. Alone onstage, Wesley talks to the lamb until he hears Westons loud, drunken voice from offstage. Wesley runs out and Weston enters, carrying a bag of artichokes. He puts the artichokes in the refrigerator and stacks his dirty laundry on the kitchen table while yelling into the empty kitchen. Wesley returns and asks about the artichokes. Weston explains that he got them while visiting the worthless piece of desert property he bought from a scam artist. Weston demands that Wesley tell Ella to do his laundry, and Weston and Wesley discuss how to cure the lamb of the maggots that infest its digestive tract.Wesley is building a new door and Emma is sitting at the kitchen table re-making her charts. They discuss the potential sale of the house and Ellas relationship with Taylor. Emma fantasizes about being a mechanic in Mexico and cheating her customers, and Wesley tells Emma about his dreams of getting awaymaybe to Alaska. Weston stumbles in, even more drunk than the night before. He is confused by the broken doorhe doesnt remember that he broke itand the fact that his dirty laundry is still on the table. Emma and Wesley explain that Ella hasnt come home yet from her appointment with Taylor. Weston tells them that he has found a buyer for the house, and Emma leaves abruptly. Weston and Wesley discuss the poison that Weston feels has infected him all his life. When Wesley tells him that Ella is planning to sell the house, Weston explodes, threatening to kill Ella and Taylor, and collapses on the table. Wesley talks about the possibility of not selling the houseof fixing up the farm and raising avocados insteadbut Weston explains that hes in a lot of debt and, mumbling about his experience flying planes in the World War II, he passes out. Ella enters with a bag of groceries and begins to put them away in the refrigerator, throwing the artichokes onto the floor. She tells Wesley that she knows that Weston was cheated into spending $500 on a worthless piece of desert land, and Wesley figures out that Taylor was the scam artist who sold it to Weston. Wesley tells Ella that Weston has already sold their house, for $1,500 to cover his debts, and that Weston wants to kill her for plotting to sell to someone else behind his back. Ella doesnt believe him. She speaks of the curse she sees operating on the family. Ellis, owner of the Alibi Club bar, where Weston spends most of his time, comes in and laughs at Weston, who is still passed out on the kitchen table. Ella asks Ellis if he makes a habit of walking into other peoples houses as if he owns them, and Ellis explains that he does own it, because Weston sold it to him. He produces the $1,500 he owes Weston for the purchase of the houseenough to cover Westons debts. Ellis says he already possesses the deed and other papers to prove the sale. Wesley wants to know who Westons creditors are, but all Ellis will tell him is that they are some pretty hard fellas. Taylor appears with the news that he has the final draft of the deed of sale for Ella to sign. Ellis threatens Taylor, and Taylor argues that Weston is not legally competent to sell the house. Taylor says that he has backing from banks and corporations, using legal language and big words to try to intimidate Ellis. Suddenly, police Sergeant Malcolm enters and informs the family that Emma has been arrested for riding her horse through the Alibi Club and shooting up the bar. Ellis seizes the money from Wesley, declaring that they now owe him for the damage Emma has done to his bar. Taylor sneaks out, and when Wesley demands that Sergeant Malcolm arrest him as a con man, Sergeant Malcolm explains that confidence schemes are not his jurisdiction. Ellis leaves with the money and Wesley runs out after him. Ella reluctantly agrees to go to the station to deal with Emma. Weston, now awake and in clean clothes, is telling the lamb a story about castrating lambs and throwing their testes onto the barn roof for an eagle to eat. Wesley appears, covered in blood, and when Weston asks him what happened, Wesley explains that he tried to get Westons money back from Ellis. Weston tells Wesley that he got up early and took a walk around the property and has decided to keep it after all. Sober and apparently inspired, Weston cleaned himself up, made breakfast, did the laundry, fixed the door, took care of the lamb, and began to feel full of hope. Wesley says that he is hungry, and Weston suggests that he take a hot bath and clean up while Weston cooks him breakfast. Weston is not worried about Wesleys failure to get the money back; he is reconsidering Wesleys suggestion that they join an avocado growers association and make a living as farmers. Wesley leaves and Ella enters. She asks Weston why the lamb is in the kitchen, and Weston explains that he has cured the lamb of its maggots. When he tells Ella that he also did all the laundry, Ella wonders if he is having a nervous breakdown. She tells Weston that she has been visiting Emma in jail. When Weston seems almost proud of Emmas slate of convictions, Ella begins to yell. Weston, however, stays cool and tells her to take a nap on the kitchen table, because itll do wonders. She stretches out on the table as Wesley comes in, naked. He picks up the lamb and carries it out. Weston yells for Wesley to come eat his breakfast, but Wesley does not return. Weston begins to eat Wesleys breakfast, and Ella falls asleep on the table. Wesley re-enters, dressed in Westons old clothes, which he pulled out of the trash. He tells Weston that he butchered the lamb for food, and Weston yells at him and shows him the now well-stocked refrigerator. Wesley tells Weston that his creditors are going to kill him, and, eventually convinced of the danger, Weston considers fleeing to Mexico, or tracking Taylor down and getting back the money he paid for the worthless desert property. Finally, Weston leaves. Emma comes in. Wesley tells her that he feels himself becoming their father, that as he put on Westons clothes, he could feel something growing on him. Emma tells Wesley that she got out of jail by making sexual advances to the sergeant. She explains that she has decided to begin a life of crime, because its the only thing that pays nowadays. She takes money and car keys from Ellas purse and leaves. Ella wakes up and, seeing Wesley in his fathers clothes, calls him Weston. Offstage, there is a huge explosion, and Emerson and Slater enter, laughing and carrying the bloody carcass of the lamb. They tell Ella and Wesley that they blew up the car as a warning to Weston about paying his debts, and then leave. Ella and Wesley look at the carcass of the lamb and tell the end of Westons story about the eagle, in which a cat fights the eagle and the two animals kill each other in a futile struggle for survival.

Significance of the SettingBuried Childs SettingThe setting of the play, Buried Child, is set in Illinois, in the Corn Belt, in the heart of America, in a farmhouse in the country.Settings Description:The following line will give us an idea what is inside the farmhouse, showing the different furniture present in the room.Old wooden staircase down left with pale, frayed carpet laid down on the steps. The stairs lead offstage left up into the wings with no landing. Up right is an old, dark green sofa with the stuffing coming out in spots. Stage right of the sofa is an upright lamp with a faded yellow shade and a small night table with several small bottles of pills on it. Down right of the sofa, with the screen facing the sofa, is a large old-fashioned brown TV. A flickering blue light comes from the screen, but no image, no sound. In the dark, the light of the lamp and the TV slowly brighten in the black space. The space behind the sofa, upstage, is a large, screened-in porch with a board floor. A solid interior door to stage right of the sofa, leads from the porch to the outside. Beyond that are the shapes of dark elm trees.

Significance of the Setting:The setting is seemingly idyllic. Agricultural, hardworking folk, with a solid morality, where life is simple, values are strong and life is good. When Vince arrives, urban America meets rural America. The setting is dominated by the couch, the television, the stairs and the porch. The television and the porch suggest the America of the 1950s, and the staircase with no landing suggests Halies mystery, perhaps her unknown past. Her monologues and entrances from the heights off- stage contribute to the strangeness of the play. The porch suggests the outside, and perhaps an escape from the house. We are made very much aware of life outside, though, by the constant sound of rain in the first two acts, the references to the sun, the entrance of characters soaked with rain, and by the vegetables that are growing in profusion and brought in by Tilden. Time is used classically in the play, as the events cover 24 hours. However, the land outside produces crop after crop in the same 24 hours, eventually producing the body of a baby. Time is surrealistic outside, and Shepard meshes the surrealistic with the realistic, as Tilden carries in each crop, and then the buried child.

The Curse of the Starving Class SettingThe setting of the play, The Curse of the Starving Class, is set in a derelict farmhouse in Duarte, California.Settings Description:The following line will give us an idea what is inside the farmhouse, showing the different things present in the room.Upstage center is a very plain breakfast table with a red oilcloth covering it. Four mismatched metal chairs are set one at each side of the table. Suspended in midair to stage right and stage left are two ruffled, red- checked curtains, slightly faded. In the down left corner of the stage are a working refrigerator and a small gas stove, set right up next to each other. In the down right corner is a pile of wooden debris, torn screen, etc., which are the remains of a broken door.

Significance of the Setting:The setting of the play is a realistic one. The play is set at a farm house that is located in an avocado farm in the West, away from the city and its modern life. All the incidents of the play take place inside the kitchen that includes a table, four metal chairs, a refrigerator and a small stove. The refrigerator is significant in the play, for it is empty from the inside. It resembles the poverty of the starving class. The refrigerator is the focal point of the action; each member of the family is obsessed with its emptiness. The family that lives in the house is a traditional family that depends on farming for living.

References:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Shepardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Starving_Classhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buried_Childhttp://www.sam-shepard.com/curs http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=QqTHRaaIgCwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false e.html

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