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In case you don't already know, Shepard is one of the most important American playwrights. Period. If you are interested in Shepard as a playwright this is the finest collection of his best work. Tongues and Savage Love, which he did in collaboration with Joseph Chaiken, are wonderful, poetic meditations of existence and identity. They all showcase his great humor and startling use of language and imagery. This collection features his finest and most mature work (Buried Child, Curse, True West) plus the best of his earlier plays (La Turista, The Tooth of Crime). Th more mature works deal, unflinchingly with american families. After this, I recommend seeking out the plays Fool for Love and A Lie of the Mind, for more of his "mature" work and then also Angel City as another prime example of the imaginative flights he took with his earlier work.
Takes the ruins and all the infinite detritus that is modern America and transforms them into an art that is both timely and mythic, and always genuinely American. One of those few writers who brings his work directly from the depths of his own mangled innards.
I read a number of the plays, and ended up choosing "Curse of the Starving Class," which has some fascinating and memorable characters. Sam Shepard is a great playwright. I bought this book for a play reading group. It is a difficult play, but the group liked it.
The problem as I see it is that he has none. Money and fame may be responsible. Why, I can't say. His occasional pieces today are weak imitations of his former self. "True West" sets the stage: we have real dramatic conflict, exciting dialog (of the sort last heard in Albee's "Zoo Story"), and high theatricality. The rest of the anthology is well worth reading, but for my money Shepard wrote a fine short play but his long and longer pieces are less interesting. They write dynamically for a given period and then off they go into putting the holy bible on stage or some such epic. Shepard wrote plays for a while and then, I think, Hollywood put the zap on him and he was gone.
Who knows. Shepard has said in interviews that he sees plays as an outlet for ideas. American playwrights aren't good at creating a career of playwriting. They become mystics, like Allen Ginsberg. Here gathered in a single anthology are the key works, on which his life's reputation rests.
One of America's greatest writers. His eccentric characters, sparse writing and classic plays. Sam Shepard is a true, unique American voice. 1. I like to call this collection Best of Shepard Vol. This collection belongs in any actors collection. I've seen "Buried Child" on-Broadway and scenes from "Buried Child", "Curse of the Starving Class", "Savage Love" and "True West" in countless acting classes.
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