Sam Shepard has been in the news and on my mind a lot these days — he’s got a new book of stories out (Days Out of Days), a new play (Ages of the Moon at the Atlantic Theater Company), and a revival of an old play (A Lie of the Mind at the New Group). So I decided to post a couple of the first big things I ever wrote about his work — a review of the ill-fated first New York production of True West at the Public Theater and then a feature story about the famous Steppenwolf revival of that play, which put John Malkovich and Gary Sinise on the map.
On vacation in Vieques last week, I read Kenneth Turan’s oral history Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public, and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told. The subtitle is pretty accurate — it is a fantastic story, beautifully told. I’m glad the book was finally published. (Turan collaborated on it with Papp back in the late 1980s, and when Papp read what Turan came up with, he hated the book and refused to let it come out.) There are many, many fascinating stories, some of them incredibly inspiring, some of them very sad. The chapter on the whole True West debacle is quite fascinating, and Shepard comes out of it looking pretty bad.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
another eye opens 
Leave a comment