17 - Sam Shepard

Summary

Biographies

Three texts which offer detailed biographical information on Shepard are Don Shewey's Sam Shepard, Martin Tucker's Sam Shepard, and Ellen Oumano's Sam Shepard: The Life and Work of an American Dreamer. All cover Shepard's life from childhood through to their publication dates, and consider both his playwriting and film work. They offer numerous and often illuminating anecdotes about Shepard culled from interviews and reports.

Shewey’s Sam Shepard was originally written in 1985 when Shewey saw Shepard as being at the peak of his career. The book was updated in 1997 with two additional chapters, but is clearly not as enamored with Shepard’s more recent work in film or theatre. Although hard to shake the impression that Shewey is more concerned with Shepard the “beefcake” movie star than the serious playwright, he does use this double life to point out a duality which is the cause of both tension and creativity throughout much of Shepard’s work. Shewey’s picture of Shepard as a rebellious innovator, inspired by popular culture to create a new kind of theatre, may, at times, seem overglamorized, but is intrinsically sound. There is no deep analysis of the plays, beyond pointing out autobiographical elements, but as biography the book offers insight, and its chatty style makes it an accessible introduction to Shepard the man. Shewey gives the facts – who did what, where, and when – allowing us to glimpse the process by (and conditions under) which Shepard writes.