“In
real life we don't know what's going to happen next. So how can you be that way
on a stage? Being alive to the possibility of not knowing exactly how
everything is going to happen next - if you can find places to have that happen
onstage, it can resonate with an experience of living.” – Sam
Shepard
Playwright,
actor, and television and film director, the multi-dimensional and
multi-talented Shepard is the only playwright to ever be nominated for an
Academy Award – for his acting (portraying pilot Chuck Yeager in the movie The Right Stuff). Shepard also won a Pulitzer Prize for playwriting
– for Buried Child – and has been
nominated for or won every major award for his screenwriting and theatrical productions,
including an incredible 10 Obies, the highest award for Broadway productions.
More than willing to share his time and
expertise, Shepard has done a considerable amount of teaching on how to do
playwriting and other aspects of theatre. His classes and seminars have
occurred at various theatre workshops, festivals, and universities. He’s been honored for his work with election
to The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and as a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation named him for
Sam Shepard
its Master
American Dramatist Award in 2009.
A “November child,” Shepard turned 72 a couple days back
and shows no signs of slowing down, not only continuing his writing, directing
and acting, but also authoring short stories, essays and memoirs. But, he says, a novel probably isn’t on the
agenda.
“To sing a song is quite different
than to write a poem,” he said. “I'm not
and never will be a novelist, but to write a novel is not the same thing as
writing a play. There is a difference in form, but essentially what you're
after is the same thing.”
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