Buried Child

Sam Shepard is the author of more than forty-five plays. He won the Pulitzer Prize for
Buried Child.
He was a finalist for the W. H. Smith Literary Award for his story collection
Great Dream of Heaven,
and he has also written the story collection
Cruising Paradise,
two collections of prose pieces,
Motel Chronicles
and
Hawk Moon,
and
Rolling Thunder Logbook,
a diary of Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Review tour. As an actor he has appeared in more than thirty films, including
Days of Heaven, Crimes of the Heart, Steel Magnolias, The Pelican Brief, Snow Falling on Cedars, All the Pretty Horses, Black Hawk Down,
and
The Notebook.
He received an Oscar nomination in 1984 for his performance in
The Right Stuff.
His screenplay for
Paris, Texas
won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, and he wrote and directed the film
Far North
in 1988 and cowrote and starred in Wim Wenders’
Don't Come Knocking
in 2005. Shepard's plays, eleven of which have won Obie Awards, include
The God of Hell, The Late Henry Moss, Simpático, Curse of the Starving Class, True West, Fool for Love,
and
A Lie of the Mind,
which won a New York Drama Desk Award. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Shepard received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy in 1992, and in 1994 he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. He lives in New York.

ALSO BY SAM SHEPARD

Tooth of Crime (Second Dance)

The God of Hell

Great Dream of Heaven

The Late Henry Moss, Eyes for Consuela,
When the World Was Green

Cruising Paradise

Simpático

States of Shock, Far North, Silent Tongue

A Lie of the Mind

The Unseen Hand and Other Plays

Fool for Love and Other Plays

Paris, Texas

Seven Plays

Motel Chronicles

Rolling Thunder Logbook

Hawk Moon

For Joe Chaikin

In 1978, when we first produced
Buried Child
at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, I had an uneasy feeling about it. Although I was more than satisfied with the production, the actors, the set, etc., aspects of the writing still seemed awkward and unfinished. The Pulitzer Prize did not change my opinion in this regard, but by that time I was already on to other work and had no inclination to double back. When Gary Sinise started work on the Steppenwolf production in Chicago in 1995, enough time had elapsed for me to clearly see the holes in the play. This insight was also heightened by Gary's instinct to push the characters and situation into an almost burlesque territory, which seemed suddenly right. It became clear, for instance, that Halie's offstage voice in the opening scene went on too long and that Lois Smith (playing the part) was bringing a sharp irony and wit to it that deserved special attention. The sexual innuendos between Dodge (James Gammon) and Shelly (Kellie Overbey) needed to be more overt and less coy. But, most important, the character of Vince seemed to be hanging in the wind, without real purpose. Even though a core truth of this character is his aimlessness and passivity, there seemed to be no point in allowing him to
be completely outside the play almost in the predicament of a narrator. So I began to try to find ways to bring him around, to “see the light,” as it were, without turning him into some kind of hero or even Sherlock Holmes. Finally, the language began to settle in and take hold. There were fewer gaps between the actors, the characters, and the words. I'm very grateful for having had the opportunity to do this work. It's now a better play.

Sam Shepard

July 2005

Buried Child,
the revised edition, was produced on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre by Frederick Zoilo, Nicholas Paleólogos, Jane Harmon, Nina Keneally, Gary Sinise, Edwin Schloss, and Liz Oliver on April 30, 1996. The production transferred from the premiere production at Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Martha Lavey Artistic Director; Michael Gennaro, Managing Director) in Chicago, Illinois, which opened on October 1, 1995. It was directed by Gary Sinise; the set design was by Robert Brill; the costume design was by Allison Reeds; the lighting design was by Kevin Rigdon; the sound design was by Rob Milburn; and the production stage manager was Laura Koch. The cast was as follows:

Buried Child
was produced at Theater for the New City, in New York City, on October 19, 1978. It was directed by Robert Woodruff. The cast was as follows:

Buried Child
received its premiere at the Magic Theatre, in San Francisco, California, on June 27, 1978. It was directed by Robert Woodruff. The cast was as follows:

CHARACTERS