Sam Shepard

A newly revised edition of an American classic, Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winning Buried Child is as fierce and unforgettable as it was when it was first produced more than twenty-five years ago.A scene of madness greets Vince and his girlfriend as they arrive at the squalid farmhouse of Vince's hard-drinking grandparents, who seem to have no idea who he is. Nor does his father, Tilden, a hulking former All-American footballer, or his uncle, who has lost one of his legs to a chain saw. Only the memory of an unwanted child, buried in an undisclosed location, can hope to deliver this family.

2 m, 1 f. One act play, Drama. Two wanna-be rock stars await their takeout delivery--or is it their rock-n-roll messiah? An early work by "True West" playwright and actor Sam Shepard. Librarian's Note: No separate publication found at this time. Generally published in collections of Shepard works.

A major work by one of our theatre's most respected and celebrated writers, this award-winning examination of the dislocations of contemporary American society was produced with great success in both London and New York. The setting is a farmhouse in the American West, inhabited by a family who has enough to eat but not enough to satisfy the other hungers that bedevil them. The father is a drunk; the mother a frowzy slattern; the daughter precocious beyond her years; and the son a deranged idealist.

A solitary man digs a hole in the ground, near a dead horse. Amidst the clutter of food and equipment stands Hobart Struther, who has ridden all the way out to the middle of nowhere on a holy mission. But one day into his “Great Sojourn,” things are looking bleak. His horse has choked to death, he's miles away from civilization, and there's not a person around to talk to – other than himself. As Hobart examines his rise — how he built a vast art collection while ensconced in a comfortable Park Avenue lifestyle — he digs deep into his own history, unearthing truths about his past while still struggling to find the answers he needs. With Shepard's linguistic flair, subtle humor, and probing insights, Kicking a Dead Horse is an invigorating addition to the works of one of America's most innovative playwrights.

If you visit Sam Shepard country, expect to find bayous, deserts, and junkyards where dreams rust alongside abandoned '51 Chevys. Prepare to meet broken gunmen and refugees from distant galaxies, slavering swamp things and California Highway Patrolmen gone high-tech and blood simple. It is a country whose creator does nothing less than renew America's myths. And sometimes he invents them from scratch. In these fourteen darkly funny, furiously energetic early works for the theater, our most audacious living playwright sets genres and archetypes spinning, with results that are utterly mesmerizing.

This American classic explores alternatives that might spring from the demented terrain of the California landscape. Sons of a desert dwelling alcoholic and a suburban wanderer clash over a film script. Austin, the achiever, is working on a script he has sold to producer Sal Kimmer when Lee, a demented petty thief, drops in. He pitches his own idea for a movie to Kimmer, who then wants Austin to junk his bleak, modern love story and write Lee's trashy Western tale.