BURIED CHILD: Know-The-Show Guide

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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey BURIED CHILD: Know-the-Show Guide

Buried Child By Sam Shepard Directed by Paul Mullins

Know-the-Show Audience Guide

Researched and written by the Education Department of The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey

Artwork by Scott McKowen. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey BURIED CHILD: Know-the-Show Guide

In This Guide

– The Life of Sam Shepard...... 2 – Sam Shepard & Buried Child...... 4 – Buried Child: A Synopsis...... 5 – Who’s Who in Buried Child...... 6 – Quotable Shepard...... 7 – The Plays of Sam Shepard...... 8 – Sam Shepard: Selected Filmography...... 8 – Explore Online: Links...... 9 – Commentary and Criticism...... 10 – In This Production...... 11 – Sources and Further Reading...... 12

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later say of the event, “I walked out of that house into the unknown, and The Life it scared the sh*t out of me, but the adventure of hitting life straight on was a thrill I’ll never forget.” He was quickly cast in a traveling acting troupe called The Bishop’s Company, and they performed in towns all over the country. When they reached Brooklyn, Sam got off the bus and Sam Shepard stayed. Times were tough, and Shepard notes that he even had to sell a pint of blood to be able to afford a cheeseburger. Eventually he made of Samuel Shepard connections and was working with other creative theater makers and Rogers was born in artists who had started Theatre Genesis in St. Mark’s Church. His first Chicago, Illinois on plays, Cowboys and The Rock Garden, were performed there in the fall November 5, 1943 of 1964. He began writing plays constantly; churning them out, one after to Jane and Sam the other. “He finished plays like others finished a grocery list,” said Joyce Rogers. His father Aaron, Shepard’s girlfriend at the time. was a World War II pilot, and his mother As his career began to flourish, he won three consecutive OBIE Awards Sam Shepard, New York, was a teacher. After (1966-68) for Distinguished Plays. In 1969, he married O-Lan Jones, photographed by Brigitte Lacombe, 2010. the war, the family an actress who he met at a residency in Pennsylvania. The couple was settled in California, where Jane had some family, and both parents quickly expecting, and they welcomed their first and only child Jesse took positions as high school teachers. Unfortunately, the image of the Mojo Shepard in May, 1970. happy family that was presented to the world was far from the reality at home. Sam Rogers was an alcoholic, and his son bore the brunt of his Less than a year later, alcoholic rages. In spite of this, young Sam did well at school; he was while playing a gig part of the drama club, basketball team, track team and led cheers at with The Holy Modal school games. After graduating high school in 1961, he went to Mount Rounders, Shepard San Antonio College, unsure whether to pursue veterinary studies or met Patti Smith, the something more creative. He found himself more and more drawn acclaimed icon of the to the drama department, and there he was introduced to the works NYC punk rock scene. of Samuel Beckett which would prove to be a major influence on his The connection was approach to language and writing. instantaneous, and, though still married, In early 1963, a violent altercation with his father drove Sam from the he moved into Patti’s family home. He packed everything into his car and left. He would room at the Hotel Sam Shepard and Patti Smith, The Chelsea Hotel, 1971. 2 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey BURIED CHILD: Know-the-Show Guide

Chelsea. Their infamous affair inspired Patti’s music, but the wanderer It was at this point that in Shepard could not be quelled. In 1971, he broke up with her and Shepard’s work as a film actor moved to London with his young family where he met and worked began to take off. This did with Peter Brook, Stephen Rea and Nancy Meckler. These relationships not, however, stop him from shaped Shepard’s writing forever. He spoke about their influences writing. Shepard always carried after he directed his play Geography of a Horse Dreamer at the Royal a notebook and pen wherever Court Theatre: “It was a great experience, which changed the way I he went, allowing him to jot approached writing, because I started writing for the actors. I’d shape down thoughts, ideas, and things and move them around and realize what was possible or not small sketches. He would go on possible. You understand the rhythmic structures much better when to publish poetry and prose in Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange in a still from you work directly with actors. It’s like a piece of music, it shifts and addition to his plays. In 2012, Frances, 1982. changes.” he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin, the alma mater of Samuel Beckett, In 1974, the family left London and moved to California with whom he so admired. O-Lan’s mother and stepfather. It was here that Shepard established a relationship with The Magic Theatre in San Francisco where his Pulitzer Despite his many career successes, Shepard faced several personal Prize-winning play Buried Child would premiere in 1978. Prior to this demons and a serious alcohol problem. He was arrested for drunk success however, Joe Papp, founder of The Public Theatre in New York, driving in 2009 and then again in 2015. Shortly after his first drunk commissioned Shepard to write five new plays for his theatre; one of driving incident, Shepard and Lange split, and he established a new which became The Curse of the Starving Class (1978) and another True home in Kentucky. In the years that followed, Shepard was diagnosed West (1980). Shepard would never fulfill his promise to write five plays with ALS, though he never let that get in the way of anything he wanted for The Public, however, after casting disputes related to the transfer of to do. True West to The Public. On July 17, 2017, Sam Shepard passed away as a result of his One year later in 1981, Shepard met Jessica Lange. The two fell in love degenerative disease. He was surrounded by his family. His longtime while filming Frances (1982) and his play Fool for Love (1983) was born friend Patti Smith wrote about that evening, “The rain fell when he took out of their affair. In 1983, he left his family for Lange but carried the his last breath, quietly, just as he would have wished. Sam was a private guilt with him for the rest of his life. Less than a year later, however, his man. I know something of such men. You have to let them dictate how father was killed crossing a busy street while intoxicated in Santa Fe, things go, even to the end.” New Mexico. Even though he had not seen his father in several months, Sam’s last memory of him was a drunken man ranting and raving about his life.

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dark haired man… having excelled as a student and athlete, he was Sam Shepard and admired by many.” Another uncle became involved with the mob in Chicago. Shepard conflates these two men to become one, as can be seen in Halie’s depictions of her dead son Ansel: “He was smart. The smartest probably. I think he probably was… It’s not fitting for Buried Child a man like that to die in a motel room… Ansel played basketball “Theater is a place to bring stuff from your life better than anyone… Of course, he’d still be alive today if he hadn’t experience. You bring it and you send this telegraph married into the Catholics. The Mob. How in the world he never and then you get out.” opened his eyes to that is beyond me.” – Sam Shepard In 1966, Shepard took a road trip to his home in Bradbury, The inspiration for Buried Child has its origins long before Sam California from New York with his then girlfriend Joyce Aaron. It Shepard was born, with his great-great-grandfather, a man by was this trip that inspired the Vince and Shelly story – a young man the name of Lemuel P. Dodge who ran a wheat farm in rural returning home for the first time in a few years with his girlfriend Illinois. This family farm was lost in the Great Depression who can’t wrap her mind around his home. by Shepard’s grandfather, whom he described in detail in an interview: “Sometimes he coughs so violently that his whole The first seeds of this play were planted when Shepard wrote The body doubles over, and he can’t catch his breath for a long time. Last American Gas Station in 1974 while on vacation in Nova His world is circumscribed around the sofa. Everything he needs Scotia. That play details the cross country travels of Halie, Dodge, is within a three-foot range.” One of those items within range and their son Eamon (who only has one leg). Dodge has a persistent would certainly have been alcohol. Shepard came from a long cough and claims that the government is trying to steal his land. line of male alcoholics, which included his father. As Shepard While this may not be exactly what would become Buried Child, remembers, when his father went to see Buried Child, “he was one sees several key elements take root: a family in crisis, a father rolling drunk and started talking to the characters and stood up with a persistent cough, and an injured son. and made all this noise. He definitely struck up a relationship with this production.” “[Buried Child] was never intended to be a piece of realism, I just used elements of the family to fabricate Ansel, whom we never see, was inspired by two of Shepard’s this thing, you know. There are elements of the truth uncles; one of whom tragically died on his honeymoon from gas in it, but I didn’t give a sh*t about the truth, and asphyxiation in his hotel room. He was described as a “handsome I still don’t.” – Sam Shepard 4 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey BURIED CHILD: Know-the-Show Guide

quintessential Midwestern home, “To Shepard’s family, the but Vince is nervous as he has events of the past, while not seen his family in six years. tragic, have left them as Buried Child When they enter the house, Dodge indifferent to one another A Synopsis doesn’t recognize Vince. When as they are to their own Tilden returns, this time with his lives.” SPOILER ALERT: The following includes some details about the play arms laden with carrots, he seems – Lauren R. Porter, that you may wish to wait to discover until viewing the production. to have forgotten his son. Vince tries “Modern and Postmodern to convince them of his identity, Wastelands: Long Day’s Journey NOTE: As in much of his work, Shepard unites elements of surrealism and but he can’t get through to them. Into Night and Shepard’s Buried symbolism within a familiar framework, in this case, a “family drama.” Shelly finds a way to communicate Child,” The Eugene O’ Neill The hybrid style provides an unusual means by which to examine the Review, Vol. 17, 1993. frustrations of a family unit that is at once unique and universal, and with Tilden, however, as they cut representative of both microcosmic and macrocosmic “family” units. carrots together. As they chat, Tilden confesses that there is a baby In a run-down farmhouse in rural Illinois, Dodge sits on the sofa and buried in the back yard that Dodge killed many years ago. Vince leaves, coughs, while arguing with his wife, Halie, who is upstairs getting ready upset that no one recognizes him, and agrees to go buy Dodge a bottle to go church. Tilden, their son, comes in with armfuls of corn claiming of whiskey. Soon after, Bradley walks in and ties to intimidate Shelly and that he picked it from their land. Dodge and Halie do not believe Tilden. him, as they claim that the farm has not produced a crop in 30 years. Halie begins to talk about her children, and we learn that in addition The next morning, Shelly and Dodge sit and chat. Though she tries to to Tilden, they have a son Bradley (who is missing a leg), and another find out what happened to the baby, Dodge doesn’t reveal the truth. Halie son Ansel who tragically died on his honeymoon. As she recounts their returns home accompanied by Father Dewis. She is terribly embarrassed past, Tilden shucks the corn and the husks fall to the floor. When Halie to find Bradley asleep on the couch and Dodge and Shelly deep in finally enters from her room, she rails on Tilden for creating a mess and conversation. An argument erupts between them, and Shelly eventually accuses him of stealing the food. Halie and Dodge continue to bicker takes Bradley’s wooden leg in frustration. There is a crash as a drunk until she leaves to meet Father Dewis in town. Dodge’s coughing fits Vince tears through the screen door. Shelly wants to leave, but Vince, worsen, and Tilden helps him lie down and gives him some medication. now recognized by his family, is determined to stay. Overwhelmed, Halie As Dodge falls asleep, Tilden covers him in the corn husks, removes a is put to bed by Father Dewis, and Dodge declares that he is leaving the bottle of whiskey from the couch and leaves. Moments later, Bradley farm and the house to Vince. Shelly leaves after Vince recounts the walks in, removes Dodge’s cap, and cuts his hair. events of the previous evening. Father Dewis comes down from Halie’s room, apologizes to Vince, and leaves. Vince realizes that Dodge Later that night, Vince and Shelly arrive at the farmhouse. They are on has died and places a blanket over his grandfather’s body. Halie their way to see Vince’s father, Tilden, in New Mexico and have decided shouts from upstairs that corn has sprouted in their backyard as to stop at the family home on their way. Shelly is amused by the family’s Tilden walks in with the remains of a dead baby in his arms.

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ON FAMILY “Shepard’s greatest plays turn on the inevitability of destiny and the persistence of heredity, which he envisions coursing like poison in the Buried Child blood; a trap one can’t avoid.” Who’s Who –John J. Winters, Sam Shepard: A Life “Certainly his families are hardly recognizable as even the most eccentric DODGE: An old, stubborn, hostile farmer in his 70s; an invalid examples of bourgeois life. They are all out-and-out disasters, and in his own home. they are this way because their members do not so much belong to a “There’s nothing a man can’t do. You dream it up and cohesive group as seek isolation within the chaos of community.” he can do it. Anything.” –Timothy O’Grady, “Home and the Homeless: Family and Myth in Shepard and Miller,” The Arthur Miller Journal, Vol. 3, 2008.

HALIE: Dodge’s wife; unwilling to deal with events of the past, she lives in the world of “what could have been.” “We can’t not believe in something. We can’t stop VINCE: Tilden’s son; a young man searching for where he belongs believing. We just end up dying if we stop. Just end in the world. up dead.” “I just don’t want to have them think that I’ve suddenly arrived out of the middle of nowhere completely TILDEN: The eldest son of Halie and Dodge; a very quiet, odd deranged.” man who can no longer function in society. “Well, you gotta talk or you’ll die. I found that out in New SHELLY: Vince’s girlfriend; an independent, strong, young woman Mexico. I thought I was dying, but I just lost my voice.” who has learned how to survive. “I don’t like being ignored. I don’t like being treated BRADLEY: Dodge and Halie’s other son; with only one leg, he like I’m not here.” feels the need to prove himself to his family and others. “Don’t talk to me like that. Don’t talk to me in that tone FATHER DEWIS: A local priest who has befriended Halie. a’ voice. There was a time when I had to take that tone a’ “God only hears what he wants to. That’s just between you voice from pretty near everyone.” and me of course.”

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“Personality is everything that is false in a human being. It’s everything that’s been added on to him and contrived. It seems to me that the struggle all the time is between this sense of falseness and the Quotable other haunting sense of what’s true — an essential thing that we’re Shepard born with and tend to lose track of. This naturally sets up a great contradiction in everybody — between what they represent and what they know to be themselves.’’ – from an interview in The New York ON SEEING HIS FATHER IN HIMSELF: “I mean every once in a while Times, 1984. I’m just amazed when I catch a glimpse of who I really am. Just a little flash, like the gesture of my hand in a conversation and ON ACTING ON STAGE: “The actor (is) the actor first and the character WHAM there’s my old man. Right there, living inside me like a second. It’s not about dissolving into the character, which we do in worm in the wood.” the movies, where it’s no longer Clint Eastwood, it’s the Pale Rider. In theater, the most interesting thing is to sustain the actor, not get ON LEAVING HOME: “I walked out of that house into the unknown rid of him. Keep the actor moving in and out of character. This is one and it scared the shit out of me but the adventure of hitting life of the most interesting things in theater…Because it’s so true to the straight on was a thrill I’ll never forget.” performance aspect of theater, and we can’t get away from that.”

ON THE PAST: “It’s very difficult to escape your background. You know, ON CREATION: “I’ll never forget the elation of finishing my first one-act I don’t think it’s necessary to even try to escape it. More and more, play. I felt I’d really made something for the first time. Like the way I start to think that it’s necessary to see exactly what it is that you you make a chair or a table. Something was in the world now that inherited on both ends of the stick: your timidity, your courage, your hadn’t been there before.” — from Two Prospectors: The Letters of self-deceit, and your honesty — and all the rest of it.” – from an Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark interview on Fresh Air, 1998 ON THE TYPE OF THEATRE HE CREATES: “The stories my characters tell ON SELF-EXAMINATION: “I really think that we are not just one are stories that are always unfinished, always imagistic — having to person. We are a multiplicity of beings, if you want to call it that… do with recalling experiences through a certain kind of vision. They’re characters are ever changing. I’m more interested in this shifting of always fractured and fragmented and broken. I’d love to be able to tell character.” a classic story, but it doesn’t seem to be part of my nature.” – from an interview in The New York Times, 1984. ON TRUTH: “People are starved for the truth, and when something comes along that even looks like the truth, people will latch on to it *All uncredited quotes appear in because everything’s so false. People are starved for a way of life — Sam Shepard: A Life by John J. Winters. they’re hunting for a way to be or to act toward the world.” 7 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey BURIED CHILD: Know-the-Show Guide Sam Shepard, Theof SamPlays Shepard The Actor: • Cowboys (1964) • BURIED CHILD (1978) PULITZER A Selected Filmography PRIZE FOR DRAMA / OBIE AWARD FOR • The Rock Garden (1964) PLAYWRIGHTING • Brand X (1970) • Leo (2002) • Chicago (1965) • Tongues (1978) • Renaldo and Clara (1978) • Blind Horizon (2003) • Icarus’s Mother (1965) • Seduced: A Play in Two Acts • Days of Heaven (1978) • The Notebook (2004) • 4-H Club (1965) (1979) • Resurrection (1980) • Bandidas (2006) • Red Cross (1966) • True West (1980) • Raggedy Man (1981) • Walker Payne (2006) • La Turista (1967) OBIE Award for Distinguished Play • Savage/Love (with Joseph • Frances (with Jessica Lange, • The Return (2006) • Cowboys #2 (1967) Chaikin) (1981) 1982) • Charlotte’s Web (2006) • Forensic & the Navigators (1967) • Fool for Love (1983) OBIE Award for • The Right Stuff (1983) • The Assassination of Jesse • The Unseen Hand (1969) Best New American Play / OBIE Award for Direction • Country (1984) James (2007) • Oh! Calcutta! (1965 - contributed • A Lie of the Mind (1985) Drama • Fool for Love (1985) • The Accidental Husband sketches) Desk Award for Outstanding Play / Outer • Crimes of the Heart (1986) (2008) • The Holy Ghostly (1970) Critics Award for Outstanding Play / New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play • Baby Boom (1987) • Felon (2008) • Operation Sidewinder (1970) • A Short Life of Trouble (1987) • Steel Magnolias (1989) • Blackthorn (2011) • Mad Dog Blues (1971) • The War in Heaven (1987) • Bright Angel (1990) • Shepard & Dark (2012, as • Back Bog Beast Bait (1971) • States of Shock (1991) • Voyager (1990) himself) • Cowboy Mouth (with Patti Smith) • Simpatico (1993) • Thunderheart (1992) • Killing Them Softly (2012) (1971) • Tooth of Crime (1996) • The Pelican Brief (1993) • Mud (2012) • The Tooth of Crime (1972) OBIE Award for • Eyes for Consuela Distinguished Play (1998) • Safe Passage (1994) • Savannah (2013) • Geography of a Horse Dreamer (1974) • The Late Henry Moss (2000) • The Only Thrill (1997) • August: Osage County (2013) • The God of Hell (2004) • Action (1975) OBIE Award for Playwrighting • Snow Falling on Cedars • Cold in July (2014) • Angel City (1976) • Kicking a Dead Horse (2007) (1999) • Ithaca (2015) • Suicide in B Flat (1976) • Ages of the Moon (2009) • Hamlet (2000) • Midnight Special (2016) • Inacoma (1977) • Heartless (2012) • All the Pretty Horses (2000) • In Dubious Battle (2016) • A Particle of Dread (Oedipus • Curse of the Starving Class (1977) OBIE • The Pledge (2001) • Never Here (2017) Award for Best New American Play Variations) (2014) • Swordfish (2001) • Black Hawk Down (2001) 8 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey BURIED CHILD: Know-the-Show Guide

Explore Online

Patti Smith’s dedication to Sam Shepard in The New Yorker, 2017: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/my-buddy- sam-shepard

Sam Shepard reads at Trinity College Dublin, 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC7o9Af6wOE

World Science Festival: The Moth, 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A_pMqs64qE http://www.sam-shepard.com/

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Commentary “Buried Child succeeds because the play doesn’t provide a list of goals; rather it provides an opportunity to experience the need for a cleansing that works to trigger a longing for a new beginning.” –William W. Demastes, “Understanding Sam Shepard’s Realism,” Criticism Comparative Drama, Vol. 21, 1987.

“Buried Child &is as effective a portrait as exists of the profound, torturing “Shepard deals with the mixture of truth and illusion, our invention of ambivalence with which we all regard where we come from. It is to the reality we believe and live in and its intermixture with the realities the American theater what Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming is to perceived by others.” the British stage, the classic domestic drama reconstructed out of the –Peter L. Hays, “Child Murder and Incest in American Drama,” shifting shadows of id.” Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 36, 1990. –Ben Brantley, “In Shepard’s Buried Child, a Father and Family Dissolve Into Darkness,” The New York Times, February 2016. “There is no sharing, no drinking from the same cup, no communion. As in Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class, the presence of food here “[Buried Child] probes the human costs of the collapse of the rural merely underscores how spiritually malnourished, how emotionally economy and the devastation of family farming by agribusiness. It starved these people, these heartlanders and All-Americans are. We are tacitly points out how the state’s lack of treatment programs mean a rich nation, but the riches are material.” that a lot of mentally ill and addicted people are sitting on their own –Peter L. Hays, “Child Murder and Incest in American Drama,” couches, staring at a screen.” Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 36, 1990. –Chris Jones, “In the Old-school Buried Child, Sam Shepard Understood What Still Pains Illinois,” The Chicago Tribune, “Buried Child taunts us with our capacity for concealing truth and for the May 2018. fragility of the structures which we build out of personal relationships and the apparent coherences of art.” “Buried Child performs an autopsy on this Midwestern family right –C.W.E. Bigsby, A Critical Introduction to Twentieth- before our eyes, even before it enters its final throes. The inherited Century American Drama, Vol. 3, 1985 defects have piled up, leaving something rotten at its core.” –John J. Winters, Sam Shepard: A Life “Whether he is writing about rock-stars, old-time gangsters or the contemporary family, Mr. Shepard’s voice remains distinctively “...it manages to be vividly alive even as it is putting together a surreal American; his humor, dark; his language, at once lyrical and hip.” presentation of American intimacy withered by rootlessness.” –Michiko Kakutani, “Myths, Dreams, Realities – –Richard Eder, “Stage: Sam Shepard Offers Buried Child,” Sam Shepard’s America,” The New York Times, 1984 The New York Times, 1978.

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Left and Below: Visual scenic research and a white model of the scenic design by Michael InThis Production Schweikardt.

Left and Below: Costume research collages for Buried Child created by Costume Designer Andrea Hood.

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Sources Gussow, Mel. “From Plays To Fiction: Thanks, Dad; Sam Shepard’s Rascals Are Further Reading Inspired by Memories Of a Mysterious Father,” The New York Times, 15 October, 2002. Web. & Hays, Peter L. “Child Murder and Incest in American Drama,” Twentieth Century Almereyda, Michael. “Sam Shepard,” Interview Magazine, 24 September, 2011. Web. Literature, Vol. 36, 1990. Print. Bigsby, C.W.E. A Critical Introduction to Twentieth Century American Drama, Jones, Chris. “In the Old-School Buried Child, Sam Shepard Understood What Vol. 3, 1985. Print. Still Pains Illinois,” The Chicago Tribune, 17 May, 2018.Web. Brantley,Ben. “In Shepard’s Buried Child, a Father and Family Dissolve Into Kakutani, Michiko. “Myths, Dreams, Realities – Sam Shepard’s America,” The Darkness,” The New York Times, 17 February, 2016. Web. New York Times, 29 January, 1984. Web. Cadwalladr, Carole. “Interview: Sam Shepard,” The Guardian, 20 March, 2010. Lahr, John. “The Pathfinder: Sam Shepard and the struggles of American Web. manhood,” The New Yorker, 8 February, 2010. Web. Crank, James A. Understanding Sam Shepard. The University of South Carolina Lahr, John. “Postscript: Sam Shepard, Who Brought Rage and Rebellion Press: South Carolina, 2012. Print. Onstage,” The New Yorker, 31 July, 2017. Web. Dark, Johnny and Shepard, Sam. Two Prospectors: The Letters of Sam Shepard O’Grady, Timothy, “Home and the Homeless: Family and Myth in Shepard and and Johnny Dark. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2013. Print. Miller,” The Arthur Miller Journal, Vol. 3, 2008. Print. Demastes, William W. “Understanding Sam Shepard’s Realism,” Comparative Opipari, Benjamin. “Shhhhhhame: Silencing the Family Secret in Sam Shepard’s Drama, Vol. 21, 1987. Print. Buried Child,” New Psychologies and Modern Assessments, Vol 44, 2010. Dwyer, Colin. “Sam Shepard, ‘Poet Laureate Of America’s Emotional Badlands,’ Print. Dies At 73,” NPR, 31 July 2017. Web. Porter, Lauren. “Modern and Postmodern Wastelands: Long Day’s Journey Into Eder, Richard. “Stage: Sam Shepard Offers Buried Child,” The New York Times, Night and Shepard’s Buried Child,” The Eugene O’Neill Review, Vol. 17, 7 November, 1978. Web. 1993. Print. Gilman, Richard. “Introduction,” from Sam Shepard: Seven Plays. Bantam Smith, Patti. “My Buddy,” The New Yorker, 1 August, 2017. Web. Books: New York, 1984. Print. Winters, John J. Sam Shepard: A Life. Counterpoint: Berkeley, 2017. Print.