4 - A note on Sam Shepard

Summary

I met Sam Shepard at dinner in 1964 when he was around 19 years old. There were three of us: Sam, me and the director John Stix, who thought the two of us ought to meet? Then Sam and I walked from the Upper West Side all the way down to the East Village. For eighty blocks we walked and talked. This was one year after the beginning of the Open Theatre. We both felt right away that we would be friends and colleagues and he sometimes visited the rehearsals of the Open Theatre where his friend Joyce Aaron was a member.

During the period of the Open Theatre he also co-authored the screenplay of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point, which featured a number of Open Theatre actors. And earlier he helped with the screenplay of Robert Frank’s film of Me and My Brother, in which I played a leading role.

I asked him if he would write a small scene for the piece called Nightwalk, the last production of the Open Theatre. He sent material to us which became part of Nightwalk in 1973.

Then Sam and I corresponded in order to work together on a new play but we didn’t know what to work on. Then we found a subject – reincarnation. We thought about the Sufis, Buddha, and others who thought about being reborn. It was a good idea and it became the play Tongues. Then later, we worked on Savage/Love, a play on the themes of romantic love.