Sam Shepard had his first New York plays, COWBOYS and THE ROCK GARDEN, produced by Theatre Genesis in 1963. For several seasons, he worked with Off-Off-Broadway theatre groups including La MaMa and Caffe Cino. Eleven of his plays have won Obie Awards including CHICAGO and ICARUS’S MOTHEr (1965); RED CROSS and LA TURISTA (1966); FORENSIC AND THE NAVIGATORS and MELODRAMA PLAY (1967); THE TOOTH OF CRIME (1972); ACTION (1974); and CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS (1976). Shepard was awarded a Pulitzer Prize as well as an Obie Award for his play BURIED CHILD (1979). FOOL FOR LOVE (1982) received the Obie for Best Play as well as for Direction. A LIE OF THE MIND (1985) won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award in 1986 and the 1986 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Play. A revived BURIED CHILD under the direction of Gary Sinise opened on Broadway in April 1996 and was nominated for a Tony Award. KICKING A DEAD HORSE (2007) and AGES OF THE MOON (2009) both received their world premieres at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. KICKING A DEAD HORSE transferred to The Public Theater in New York and to the Almeida Theatre in London, and AGES OF THE MOON received its US premiere at Atlantic Theater Company in 2010. Shepard’s latest play, HEARTLESS, premiered in 2012 at Signature. Shepard wrote the screenplays for “Zabriskie Point”; Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Texas”; and Robert Altman’s “Fool for Love”, a film version of his play of the same title. As writer/director, he filmed “Far North” and “Silent Tongue” in 1988 and 1992 respectively. As an actor he has appeared in the films “Days of Heaven”, “Resurrection”, “Raggedy Man”, “The Right Stuff”, “Frances”, “Country”, “Fool for Love”, “Crimes of the Heart”, “Baby Boom”, “Steel Magnolias”,” Bright Angel”, “Defenseless”, “Voyager”, “Thunderheart”, “The Pelican Brief”, “Safe Passage”, “Hamlet” and, most recently, “Don’t Come Knocking”, also co-written with Wim Wenders. In 1986, Shepard was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1992, he received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy, and in 1994, he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
|