Sam Shepard One Acts:

Rhythm, Savage/Love,
Hail from Nowhere, Just Space
The Curse of the Raven’s Black Feather

Resource Guide for Teachers

Created by:
Lauren Bloom Hanover, Director of Education

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Table of Contents
About Profile Theatre 3

How to Use This Resource Guide 4

The Artists 5

Lesson 1: Who is Sam Shepard?

Classroom Activities:
1) Biography and Context 6
2) Shepard in His Own Words 6

3) Shepard Adjectives 7

Lesson 2: Influences on Shepard

Classroom Activities
1) Exploring Similar Themes in O’Neill and Shepard16
2) Exploring Similar Styles in Beckett and Shepard 17
3) Exploring the Influence of Music on Shepard 18

Lesson 3: Inspired by Shepard

Classroom Activities
1) Reading Samples of Shepard 28
2) Creative Writing Inspired by Shepard 29
3) Directing One’s Own Work 29

Lesson 4: What Are You Seeing

Classroom Activities
1) Pieces Being Performed 33
2) Statues 34
3) Staging a Monologue 36

Lesson 5: Reflection
Classroom Activities
1) Written Reflection 44
2) Putting It All Together 45

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About Profile Theatre
Profile Theatre was founded in 1997 with the mission of celebrating the playwright’s
contribution to live theater. To that end, Profile programs a full season of the work
of a single playwright. This provides our community with the opportunity to deeply
engage with the work of our featured playwright through performances, readings,
lectures and talkbacks, a unique experience in Portland.

Our Mission realized...

Profile invites our audiences to enter a writer’s world for a full season of plays and
events. Whether attending a single performance or the whole season, our deep
examination of the featured writer encourages audiences to view each play as part
of a larger body of work, provoking ongoing, fluid dialogue. What does the artist
observe and explore in their youth? What are they concerned with in the middle of
their career? Now? How is their shifting perspective informed and influenced by the
changing world in which they are writing? By experiencing a writer’s shifting
perspective, audiences come to a deeper understanding of that artist’s world view
as well as, hopefully, their own.

We believe that live theater begins with the playwright’s words. In honoring the
playwright, Profile encourages its audience to recognize the creative dynamic
between the playwright and live theater — the playwright is the springboard or seed
from which everything else grows. The dramatists we profile always have
something significant to say about humankind in all its variety, complexity, humor,
tragedy, anger and goodwill. They shine a light on the desires and demons that
drive us, helping us seek a better understanding of who we are, where we are going
and why. At Profile, we seek to always make that search deeply enjoyable and
stimulating.

About Inside Out, Our Community and School Tour

Profile Theatre is proud to launch the second year of its touring program, Inside
Out. Following a full run on our main stage, a selection of our Sam Shepard One
Acts is touring to local high schools and community centers in the greater Portland
area. The touring production of the play is presented in full costume with props and
a soundscape. We bring only minimal set pieces to suggest surroundings. This
enables us to easily transport the production to its destination, allowing us to spend
longer with students and less time in set-up and travelling. The production is
followed by a conversation between the students and the cast.

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How to Use This Resource Guide:

This resource guide was developed to support teachers in preparing their students
to see and to fully engage with Profile Theatre’s Inside Out School Tour
performance of SAM SHEPARD’S ONE ACTS. There are five lesson plans in the
guide. The first four are intended to be taught prior to seeing the performance, and
the final lesson is intended to follow.

These lesson plans were developed primarily for language arts classes, though they
can be easily adapted by theatre teachers. Each lesson plan includes pertinent
quotes by the playwright which we encourage either teachers or students to read
aloud to the class. All of the lesson plans also include classroom activities, along
with discussion questions to promote robust conversation in class. These
questions may also used as writing prompts for homework assignments. For any
classroom exercise that makes use of excerpts of Sam Shepard’s work, we have
included the specified material at the back of each respective lesson plan for
teachers to print out and photocopy for students. Finally, each lesson plan sites
the Common Core standards that are fulfilled by the exercises and analysis
contained therein.

While the five lesson plans were developed as a loose progression culminating in the
final reflection class, each lesson can also be a stand alone workshop, allowing
teachers with limited time to pick and choose the lesson plans that they feel will be
of the most benefit to their students. Additionally, the lessons were each
structured to last approximately 50-55 minutes. With many schools now operating
with block schedules, teachers should feel free to mix and match as they see fit.

Thank you so much for your commitment to bringing live professional theatre to
your students, and for investing the time in preparing them to have the best
experience possible. Please feel free to contact us with questions, concerns or
feedback on this resource guide or the program in general.

Sincerely,
Profile Theatre

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The Artists

Andrés Alcalá (Raven, Rhythm) has spent five years working with the Oregon Shakespeare
Festival Education department as a touring actor/teacher as well as a facilitating member of
the Junior Summer Seminar for Youth. He was also an acting company member for two
seasons with OSF 95-97. He spent 6 years in Arizona as an associate artist at Childsplay
(Tempe, AZ) where he directed several productions and served as an actor as well as a
teacher. Locally he has been a teaching artist with the Northwest Children's Theatre and for
The Oregon Children's Theatre. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Southern Oregon
University. Has received several awards for both acting and directing in Portland, Phoenix,
Tucson, and Chicago. Last seen in Profile Theatre's Production of EYES FOR CONSUELA.

Chris Murray* (Hail from Nowhere, Rhythm) is thrilled to be working on this

festival with so many amazing artists. Previously with Profile: Six Degrees of
Separation, The Sister's Rosensweig and A Few Stout Individuals. Previous
credits include NBC's Grimm; Playboy of the Western World, Xmas Unplugged, (I
am still) The Duchess of Malfi and Take Me Out (Artists Rep): The Revenants
(The Reformers), A Bright New Boise, The Aliens and A Skull in Connemara (Third Rail Rep):
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Portland Playhouse): Falstaff and Romeo and Juliet (Oregon
Symphony); Sometimes a Great Notion, Futura and the JAW Festival (Portland Center
Stage); Animals and Plants, Hamlet and The Receptionist (CoHo Productions); and The
Grown-Up (Humana Festival).

Nelda Reyes (Raven, Hail From Nowhere, Just Space)has been working as a
bilingual performer and arts educator in the Northwest for the last 10 years. She is
a graduate from the Moscow Art Theatre Summer School and IATT, Harvard
University and PSU´s MA in Theatre Arts. Portland credits include: Miracle Theater,
Shaking the Tree, Well Arts, Valley Repertory Theater, The Circus Project and
NBC’s Grimm. Nelda is the Co-creator of Nuestro Canto, a traveling performing duet
dedicated to share Latin American arts and culture.

Beth Thompson (Savage/Love, Hail From Nowhere, Just Space)is a performer,

teacher, and maker of new works. Since coming to Portland, she has had the
pleasure of working with Shaking the Tree, Portland Center Stage’s JAW
Festival, Many Hats Collaborations, Action/Adventure, and Oregon Children’s
Theatre. She has worked as a proud member of The Forgery Theatre Collective
and Theatre Vertigo. Beth holds a B.A. from Illinois State University and is an
AmSAT Certified Alexander Technique teacher.

Directors: Bruce Hostetler (Savage Love) Pat Patton (Rhythm, Raven),

Matt Zrebski (Hail from Nowhere, Just Space)
Stage Manager: D Westerholm*
Assistant Stage Manager: Ross Jackson
Scenic and Props Design: Kaye Blankenship
Costume Design: Sara Ludeman
Sound Design: Nick Erickson
Tour Manager: Lauren Bloom Hanover

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LESSON 1: Who is Sam Shepard?
Includes:
- a basic biography of the playwright as well as a timeline that places him
and his works in a historical context.
- quotes by the playwright about his work and the time in which he was
writing
- discussion questions and activities examining the impact of cultural
context on a writer, and expectations about the work of Sam Shepard

Classroom Activity #1: Biography and Context (7-10 minutes)

For Teachers: You will need to print out materials for this activity. They can
be found following this lesson plan: Classroom Activity #1: Biography &
Timeline

DIRECTIONS:
- Distribute the biography of Sam Shepard. Have students spend a few minutes reading it to
themselves.
- Students should also look over the timeline that follows, with particular attention to getting
a sense of the historical context in which he wrote.

Classroom Activity #2: Shepard in His Own Words (5 minutes)

DIRECTIONS:
- Below are several quotes that can serve as an effective way of introducing students to
Shepard’s work and to his unique voice.
- We recommend that these be read aloud, either by students or by the teacher.

Quotes by Shepard:

Looking Back at the Early Work:

“Things used to attack me in the mind. I had no idea where they were coming
from, or why they were there, and I used to get more and more fascinated and
look at them and mess around….and it turns out it’s a waste of time. There’s
a much more creative life to the mind than following all the junk.”
-Interviewed by Jennifer Allen, Esquire, Nov. 1988 pg. 148

On Stories:
“The stories my characters tell are stories that are always unfinished,
always imagistic _ having to do with recalling experiences through a
certain kind of vision. They’re always fractured and fragmented and
broken. I'd love to be able to tell a classic story, but it seem to be part of my

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 nature.”
-Interviewed by Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, 29 Jan. 1984, Sec. 2, p. 26

New York in the Early Sixties:

“On the Lower East Side there was a special sort of culture developing. You
were so close to the people going to the plays, there was really no difference
between you and them -- your own experience was their experience, so that
you began to develop that consciousness of what was happening…I mean
nobody knew what was happening, but there was a sense that something was
going on….a community was being established. It was a very exciting time.”
-Interview in Theatre Quarterly pg.6-8

Changing Direction:
“I'd been writing for ten years in an experimental maze - poking around, fishing
in the dark. I wasn’t going anywhere. I felt I needed an aim in the work versus
just the instinctive stuff, which is very easy for me to do. I started with
character, in all its complexities. As I got more and more into it, it led me to
the family. I always did feel a part of that tradition but hated it. I couldn’t
stand those plays that were all about the ‘turmoil’ of the family. And then all of
a sudden I realized, well that was very much a part of my life, and maybe that
has to do with being a playwright, that you’re somehow snared beyond
yourself.”
- by Jennifer Allen, Esquire, November 1988 p. 148

Classroom Activity #3: Shepard Adjectives (10-15 minutes)

DIRECTIONS:
- Split students into groups of 3 or 4.
- Using one personal media device per group (or a school computer) the group has 5 minutes
to use the internet to find as many adjectives or evocative phrases as possible used to
describe the work of Sam Shepard.
- Teams record their list on a piece of paper.
- At the end of the five minutes, each group shares what they have found.
- The teacher writes each adjective on the board so everyone can see them.

For Teachers: As each adjective is reported, it is interesting to ask the

group how many people found the same adjective.

- Once all of the adjectives have been recorded on the board, ask the students what they
notice or what strikes them about the collection of adjectives on the wall.

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[Discussion/Reflection Questions:]
1) Having learned about Shepard and his life as well as some of the reactions to his work,
what are your expectations about his plays and his writing? Do you think you are going to
enjoy his work? Are you curious about it? Why or why not?

2) If you were to become a writer, what aspects of your society or your personal experience
do you think would most influence your work? Why?

Common Core Standards Addressed:

Reading:
Informational:
-9-10: Standards 1, 2 & 3
-11-12: Standards 1, 2, & 3

Writing:
- 9-10: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7
- 11-12: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7

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 Biography of Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, screenwriter, director,

author and musician. Born Samuel Shepard Rogers III in Fort
Sheridan, Illinois on November 5th, 1943, Sam Shepard spent the
early part of his childhood moving from base to base around the US
until the family settled in Duarte, California. His father, Samuel
Shepard Rogers Jr. was a teacher and farmer who served as a
bomber pilot for the US Army during World War II. Shepard has
described his father as "a drinking man, a dedicated alcoholic". His
mother, Jane Elaine (née Schook), was also a teacher. Shepard first
began writing and acting while in high school, during which time he
also worked as a ranch hand. He graduated high school in 1961 and
then spent a year studying agriculture at Mount San Antonio Junior College, with the
intention of become a vet. It was during this time that Shepard became interested in the
work of Samuel Beckett, abstract expressionism and jazz music.

In 1962, the Bishop’s Company Repertory Players, a touring theater company, visited the
town. When they moved on, Shepard decided to join up and go with them, leaving home to
tour with the company for the next two years. He eventually settled in New York where he
began writing plays and performing with obscure off-off-Broadway groups. It didn’t take long
before his work began to get noticed and gain recognition. In 1966 Shepard won his first
OBIE (Off-Broadway) awards for three different plays, Chicago, Icarus’ Mother and Red
Cross. Shepard won OBIES the following two years as well. It was around this time that
Shepard also began writing for the screen.

Sam Shepard flirted with the world of rock, playing drums for the Holy Modal Rounders until
he moved to London in 1971 with his wife Olan and young son, where he continued writing.

Back in the US by 1974, he moved to the 20-acre Flying Y Ranch in Mill Valley, California. He
wrote plays out of his house and He served for a semester as Regents' Professor of Drama at
the University of California, Davis. Shepard accompanied Bob Dylan on
the Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975 as the ostensible screenwriter of
the surrealist Renaldo and Clara (1978) that emerged from the tour;
because much of the film was improvised, Shepard's services were
seldom utilized. His diary of the tour (Rolling Thunder Logbook) was
published by Penguin Books in 1978.
Also in 1975, he became playwright in residence at San Francisco's
Magic Theater where many of his notable works (including his Family
Trilogy: Buried Child [1978], Curse of the Starving Class [1978], and
True West [1980]) received their premier productions.[6] Some critics
expand this grouping to a quintet which includes Fool for Love (1983) and A Lie of the Mind
(1985). He continued to work as an increasingly well respected playwright throughout the
1970s and into the '80s.
Throughout this time he had been dabbling with Hollywood having, most notably in the early
days, worked as one of the writers on _"Zabriski Point" (1970). Shepard began his acting

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career in earnest when he was cast as the handsome land baron in Terrence Malick's Days of
Heaven (1978), opposite Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. This led to other important films
and roles, most notably his portrayal of Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983), earning him
an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Throughout the years, Shepard has done a considerable
amount of teaching on writing plays and other aspects of
theatre. His classes and seminars have occurred at various
theatre workshops, festivals, and universities.
Shepard was elected to The American Academy of Arts and
Letters in 1986. He was elected a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986. He continues to write,
act and direct, both on screen and in the theater.

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 Timeline:
An interactive online version of this timeline can be found at our website:
[Link]

**: (!) = One Act (^)= Profile Main Stage

Historical
Year Personal Selected Plays** Awards Context
Samuel Shepard
Rogers III born
November 5 in Fort
Sheridan Illinois to
Jane (teacher) and
Sam Rogers II (Army U.S. has been at
1943 Pilot) War for two years
Allied invasion of
1944 Normandy,
American troops
invade Iwo Jima,
Hitler commits
suicide, Germany
surrenders
unconditionally to
the Allies, U.S.
bombs Hiroshima,
World War II ends
1945 offically

1947 Cold War "begins"

Begins School in
1949 South Pasadena
Korean War
begins/approved
1950 by Truman
End of Korean
1953 War
Shepard family
moves to avocado
ranch in Duarte,
1955 California
Graduates high
school, first
experiences writing
and acting at Mount
San Antonio Junior
1960 College

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 Sam Shepard leaves
home over family
tension and father's
1961 alcoholism
Escalation of U.S.
Moves to the Lower involvement in
East Side in Vietnam War/
Manhattan, working John F. Kennedy
1963 as waiter Assassinated
Begins collaboration with
La Mama Theatre
Company: The Rock
Garden, Cowboys, Up to Lyndon B.
Thursday all written in Johnson signs the
the first year of Civil Rights Act of
1964 collaboration 1964
Escapes draft on
basis of "supposed Chicago, Icarus's Mother,
1965 heroin addiction" 4H Club
Wins Obies for
"Chicago,"
"Icarus's Mother,"
1966 and "Red Cross"
Cowboys #2 (!), La
Turista, Melodrama Play,
Forensic and the Wins Obie for "La
1967 Navigators Turista"
Wins Obies for Martin Luther King
"Forensic and the Jr. Assassinated/
Navigator" and Robert Kennedy
1968 "Melodrama Play" Assassinated
Apollo 11 Lands
on the Moon/
Marries O-Lan Jones Woodstock Music
1969 in November Festival
Son Jesse Mojo
Shepard born in
May, begins affair The Unseen Hand,
1970 with Patti Smith Operation Sidewinder

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 Moves to London to
Pursue Being a
1971 Musician Cowboy Mouth
Break In at the
1972 Tooth of Crime Watergate Hotel
Hawk Moon:The Curse of Wins Obie for
the Raven’s Black Feather "The Tooth of
1973 (!), Rhythm (!) Crime"
Geography of a Horse
1974 Dreamer Nixon Resigns

Moves to Northern
California/ Tours Wins Obie for
1975 with Bob Dylan "Action"
Suicide in B Flat, The Sad
Lament of Pecos Bill on
1976 the Eve of Killing His Wife
Wins Obie for
Curse of the Starving "Curse of the
1977 Class Starving Class"

Buried Child (^), Tongues

1978 (!)
Wins Pulitzer
Prize, Obie for Start of the Iran
1979 Savage/Love (!) "Buried Child" Hostage Crisis

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 Wins Sustained John Lennon
1980 True West (^) Achievement Obie Assassinated
AIDS first
Hawk Moon: Short identified by the
Stories, Poems, and U.S. Centers for
1981 Monologues (Rerelease) Disease Control

Moves in with
1983 Jessica Lange Fool For Love

Death of Sam
Rogers, Sr., Oscar: Best Actor
Finalizes divorce in a Supporting
from O-Lan Jones, Role, The Right
Long Time Stuff
Collaborator Joseph (Nominated), Two
Chaikin suffers a Obies for "Fool for
1984 stroke Love"
The War in Heaven
1985 (Angel's Monologue) (!)
Drama Desk
Award, Outer
Critics Circle
Award and New
York Drama
Critics Award for
Daughter Hannah Best New Play for Disaster at the
Jane born January A LIE OF THE Chernobyl Nuclear
1986 13 A Lie of the Mind MIND Power Plant
Son Samuel 'Walker'
Shepard born June
1987 14 Short Life of Trouble

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 Fall of the Berlin
1989 Wall
Nelson Mandela
1990 Freed from Prison
Collapse of the
1991 States of Shock Soviet Union

First Successful
Cloning of a
1996 Buried Child (rewritten) Mammal
The Good Friday
Agreement
Establishes Peace
in Northern
1998 Eyes for Consuela (^) Ireland
The Supreme
Court Hands
Down their
Decision in Bush
2000 The Late Henry Moss v. Gore

2001 September 11th

2003 Invasion of Iraq

2004 God of Hell

2007 Kicking a Dead Horse

Barack Obama
Elected President
of the United
2008 States
Separates from
2010 Jessica Lange
Evanescence, or
Shakespeare in the Alley
2011 (*)

2012 Heartless

2013 A Particle of Dread

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Lesson 2: Influences on Shepard
Includes:
- Quotes from the Playwright: On O’Neill, Originality from Ignorance, On
Jazz and Other Music
- Two exercises exploring the influence of other great dramatists on the
work of Shepard.
- An exercise analyzing the impact of music and percussion on Sam
Shepard.

Sam Shepard has had a significant impact on contemporary theatre, not just in America but
throughout the field. His unapologetic and unflinching work has made more room for not only
the exploration of controversial themes and subject matters, but also for a wider range of
styles used for storytelling onstage. Naturally, Shepard himself was influenced by not only
other writers, but also was deeply impacted by his passion for and experience with music.

Classroom Activity #1: Exploring Similar Themes in O’Neill and Shepard (15-20
minutes)

EUGENE O’NEILL: Eugene O’Neill is one of the foremost American playwrights.

Writing in the early part of the 20th century, O’Neill’s plays were largely responsible
for introducing realism into American Theatre. Many of his most famous plays
focused on the stories of his own family members.

Quote by Shepard:
On O’Neill:
“Plays have to go beyond just ‘working out problems’... What makes O’Neill’s
Long Day's Journey into Night such a great work, for instance, is that O’Neill
moves past his own personal family situation into a much wider dimension. I
read that play in high school, and I've always thought that that was truly the
great American play. It’s so overwhelmingly honest - O’Neill just doesn’t pull any
punches. You can’t confront that play without being moved.”
-Interviewed by Jonathan Cott, Rolling Stone, 18 December. 1986, p. 172

Much of Shepard’s most famous work also explores issues of family. Five of Shepard’s full
length plays, taken together are considered by many to be his “Family Quintet” which
explores the idea of the American family, the potency of “home,” and the deterioration of the
American Dream. Many of Shepard’s characters seem to be inspired by members of his own
family, particularly his father.

For Teachers: You will need to print out materials for this activity. They can
be found following this lesson plan: Excerpts for Classroom Activity #1
(Excerpts of A LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT and CURSE OF THE STARVING

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 CLASS.)

DIRECTIONS:
- Select two students to read the first scene (one as Jamie and one as Tyrone)
- Select two students to read the second scene (one as Wesley and one as Weston.)
- Reach each scene out loud.
- Discuss as a class the similarities and differences between the pieces.
-What themes do they have in common?
-What is the nature of the relationships between the fathers and the sons?
How are they similar? How are they different? What else do they have in
common?

Classroom Activity #2: Exploring Similar Styles in Beckett and Shepard (15-20
minutes)

SAMUEL BECKETT: Samuel Beckett was an Irish playwright, novelist and

director. His avant garde style and the minimalism of much of his work has left
an indelible mark on the theatre. His work had a profound impact on the young
Sam Shepard, who up until coming across Beckett’s famous play WAITING FOR
GODOT, was very limited in his understanding of what theatre could be or look
like.

Quote by Shepard:

Originality from Ignorance:

“I hardly knew anything about the theatre. I remember once in
California I went to this guy’s house who was called a beatnik by
everybody in the school….he sort of shuffled over to me and threw this
book on my lap and said, why don’t you dig this, you know. I started
reading this play he gave me, and it was like nothing I’d ever read before
- it was Waiting for Godot. And I thought, what’s this guy talking about,
what is this? And I read it with a very keen interest, but I didn’t know
anything about what it was. I didn’t really have any reference for the
theatre, except for the few plays I had acted in. But in a way I think
that was better for me, because I didn’t have any idea about how to
shape an action into what is seen -- so the so-called originality of the
early work just came from ignorance.”
- Interview in Theatre Quarterly, pg. 5

For Teachers: You will need to print out materials for this activity. They can
be found following this lesson plan: Excerpts for Classroom Activity #2
(Excerpts of WAITING FOR GODOT and COWBOYS #2.) Also included is an
image of a production of each play, with design that follows the direction of
each playwright. The visual will add another layer to student’s understanding
of Beckett’s influence.)

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DIRECTIONS:
- Select two students to read GODOT and two students to read COWBOYS. (You
may wish to read the stage directions out loud.)
- Read the scenes out loud.
- Discuss as a class the similarities and differences between the pieces, with
particular attention to style and theatrical convention.
-How are the world’s similar? How are they different?
- What is the style of storytelling? If not naturalism, what techniques
do the playwrights use to give us, the audience, information about the
world of the plays?
- How are the characters similar and different? What about their
relationship to one another and to their surroundings?

Classroom Activity #3: Influence of Music on Shepard (15-20 minutes)

Sam Shepard did not necessarily set out to be a writer. In fact, music in general and rock
and roll specifically, were of great interest to him. His move to London in 1971 was
motivated by a desire to be a rock and roll star, and he played for a time with the Holy Modal
Rounders as a percussionist.

Quotes by Shepard:

On Jazz and Other Music:

“Jazz could move in surprising territory without qualifying itself. You could
follow a traditional melody and then break away, and then come back, or drop
into polyrhythms….But more importantly, it was an emotional thing. You could
move in all these emotional territories, and you could do it with passion. You
could throw yourself into a passage, and then you could calm down, and then
you could ride this thing, then you could throw yourself in again….Jazz was
what I wanted to dive into; it represented a kind of sophistication. Then after
a while I started reacting against that, the whole jazz influence. So I began to
think rock and roll music represented another kind of back to a raw gut kind of
American thing. Then that came to an end. Now I’m back to country music.”
- Interviewed by Pete Hamill, ‘The New American Hero’, New York, 5 Dec. 1983,
Pg. 80

Music and rhythm are an undeniable influence and force on much of the work of Sam
Shepard. In RHYTHM, one of the pieces that will be a part of the tour performance, this
influence is on full display.

For Teachers: You will need to print out materials for this activity. They can
be found following this lesson plan: Excerpts for Classroom Activity #3
(Rhythm) Prior to sharing the piece with your students, you may elect to

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 play a selection of jazz and/or rock music that is contemporary with the early
part of Shepard’s career. Two possibilities are below:

-So What by Miles Davis: [Link]

-Whipping Post by The Allman Brothers:
[Link]

DIRECTIONS:
- Listen to the music selections.
- Brainstorm with your students adjectives or qualities that they feel are appropriate to
describe each piece of music.
- As a group, read through Shepard’s RHYTHM.
(You may choose to either have the entire class read the piece out loud, one
student for each phrase/sentence, or to select two students to trade each phrase
back and forth, or another alternative method of your choosing.)
- After reading the piece all together, have students provide a written answer to the
following questions:
1) What images struck you the most? Why?
2) How is this piece like a piece of music?
3) What writing techniques and devices does Shepard use to mirror the
characteristics of music?
3) How could you turn this piece of writing into a performance piece? How many
people would perform it? How would you stage the musicality of the piece?

Common Core Standards Addressed:

Reading:
Literary:
-9-10: Standards 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10
-11-12: Standards 1, 2, 3, 5, 10

Writing:
- 9-10: Standards 1, 2, 4
- 11-12: Standards 1, 2, 4

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Excerpt for Classroom Activity #1: O’Neill and Shepard Thematic Comparison

[LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT]

JAMIE: After a pause. What did Doc Hardy say about the Kid?

TYRONE: Dully. It’s what you thought. He’s got consumption.

JAMIE: God damn it!

TYRONE: There is no possible doubt, he said.

JAMIE: He’ll have to go to a sanitorium.

TYRONE: Yes, and the sooner the better, Hardy said, for him and everyone around him. He
claims that in six months to a year Edmund will be cured, if he obeys orders.
He sighs -- gloomily and resentfully.
I never thought a child of mine -- It doesn’t come from my side of the family. There
wasn’t one of us that didn’t have lungs as strong as an ox.

JAMIE: Who gives a damn about that part of it! Where does Hardy want to send him?

TYRONE: That’s what I’m to see him about.

JAMIE: Well, for God’s sake, pick out a good place and not some cheap dump!

TYRONE: Stung. I’ll send him wherever Hardy thinks best!

JAMIE: Well, don’t give Hardy your old over-the-hills-to-the-poorhouse song about taxes
and mortgages.

TYRONE: I’m no millionaire who can throw money away! Why shouldn’t I tell Hardy the
truth?

JAMIE: Because he’ll think you want him to pick out a cheap dump, and because he’ll know it
isn’t the truth -- especially if he hears afterwards you’ve seen McGuire and let that
flannel-mouth, gold-brick merchant sting you another piece of bum property!

TRYONE: Furiously. Keep your nose out of my business!

JAMIE: This is Edmund’s business. What I’m afraid of is, with your Irish bogtrotter idea that
consumption is fatal, you’ll figure it would be a waste of money to spend any more
than you can help.

TYRONE: You liar!

JAMIE: All right. Prove I’m a liar. That’s what I want. That’s why I brought it up.

20
TYRONE: His rage still smouldering. I have every hope Edmund will be cured. And keep your
dirty tongue off Ireland! You’re a fie one to sneer, with the mapo fit on your face!

JAMIE: Not after I was my face.

Then before his father can react to this insult to the Old Sod, he adds dryly,
shrugging his shoulders.
Well, I’ve said all I have to say. It’s up to you.
Abruptly.
What do you want me to do this afternoon, now you’re going uptown? I’ve done all I
can do on the hedge until you cut more of it. You don’t want me to go ahead with
your clipping, I know that.

TYRONE: No. You’d get it crooked, as you get everything else.

JAMIE: Then I’d better go uptown with Edmund. The bad news coming on top of what’s
happened to Mama may hit him hard.

TYRONE: Forgetting his quarrel. Yes, go with him, Jamie. Keep up his spirits, if you can.
He adds caustically.
If you can without making it an excuse to get drunk!

JAMIE: What would I use for money? The last I heard they were still selling booze, not
giving it away.

- LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene O’Neill, Copyright Carlotta Monterey O’Neill,
1955 Pages 79-81

[CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS:]

WESTON: ...you recognize poison, right? You recognize it when

you see it?

WESLEY: Yes.

WESTON: Yes, you do. I can see that you do. My poison scares
you.

WESLEY: Doesn’t scare me. Photo from 2008 production at the

Signature Theatre in New York
WESTON: No?

WESLEY: No.

WESTON: Good. You’re growing up. I never saw my old man’s poison until i was much older
than you. Much older. And then you know how I recognized it?

WESLEY: How?

21
WESTON: Because I saw myself infected with it. That’s how. I saw me carrying it around.
His poison in my body. You think that’s fair?

WESLEY: I don’t know.

WESTON: Well, what do you think? You think I asked for it?

WESLEY: No.

WESTON: So it’s unfair, right?

WESLEY: It’s just the way it happened.

WESTON: I didn’t ask for it, but I got it.

WESLEY: What is it anyway?

WESTON: What do you mean, what is it? You can see it for yourself!

WESLEY: I know it’s there, but I don’t know what it is.

WESTON: You’ll find out.

WESLEY: How?

WESTON: How do you poison coyotes?

WESLEY: Strychnine.

WESTON: How! Not what!

WESLEY: You put it in the belly of a dead lamb.

WESTON: Right. Now do you see?

WESLEY: (after pause) No.

WESTON: You’re thick! You’re really thick. (pause) You know I watched my old man move
around. I watched him move through rooms. I watched him drive tractors, watched
him watching baseball, watched him keeping out of the way of things. Out of the
way of my mother. Away from my brothers. Watched him on the sidelines. Nobody
saw him but me. Everybody was right here, but nobody saw him but me. He lived
apart. Right in the midst of things and he lived apart. Nobody saw that.

(Long pause.)

WESLEY: You want an artichoke?

22
WESTON: No.

WESLEY: Who’s the buyer?

WESTON: Some guy. Owns the “Alibi Club” downtown. Said he’ll give me cash.

WESLEY: How much?

WESTON: Enough to get to Mexico. They can’t touch me down there.

WESLEY: Who?

WESTON: None of your goddamn business! Why is it you always drive yourself under my skin
when I’m around? Why is that?

WESLEY: We don’t get along.

WESTON: Very smart! Very observant! What’s the matter with you anyway? What’re you
doing around here?

WESLEY: I’m part of your offspring.

WESTON: Jesus, you’re enough to drive a sane man crazy! You’re like having an espionage
spy around. Why are you watching me all the time?

(WESTON looks at him. They stare at each other for a moment.)

WESTON: you can watch me all you want to. You won’t find out a thing.

WESLEY: Mom’s trying to sell the place, too.

(WESTON looks at him hard.)

WESLEY: That’s who the lawyer guy was. She’s selling through him.

(WESTON stands and almost topples over.)

WESTON: I’LL KILL HER! I’LL KILL BOTH OF THEM!

Where’s my gun. I had a gun here! A
captured gun!.

WESLEY: Take it easy.

WESTON: No, you take it easy! Photo from the 2008 production at the
American Conservatory Theatre, San
Francisco
- CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS by Sam Shepard, Copyright Sam Shepard, 1976

23
Excerpt for Classroom Exercise #2: Beckett and Shepard Stylistic Comparison

Waiting for Cowboys #2

Godot by Sam
by Samuel Shepard
Beckett
The setting is a
bare stage, very
dimly lit.
Upstage center
is a sawhorse with a yellow caution light
ACT 1: A country road. A tree. mounted on it. The light blinks on and off
Evening. throughout the play. On each side of the
sawhorse is a YOUNG MAN seated against
Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying the upstage wall. They both wear black
to take off his boot. He pulls at it with pants, black shirts and vests, and black
both hands, panting. He gives up, hats. They see to be sleeping. Offstage is
exhausted, rests, tries again. the sound of a single cricket, which lasts
As before. throughout the play. As the curtain rises
Enter Vladamir. there is a long pause, then a saw is heard
offstage, then a hammer, then the saw
ESTRAGON: (giving up again) again.
Nothing to be done.
MAN NUMBER ONE: (Off left)
VLADIMIR: (Advancing with short, stiff It’s going to rain.
strides, legs wide apart)
I’m beginning to come round to that STU:
opinion. All my life I’ve tried to put it Do you think so?
from me, saying, Vladimir, be
reasonable, you haven’t yet tried CHET:
everything. And I resumed the What?
struggle.(He broods, musing on the
struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there STU:
you are again. Uh, rain?

ESTRAGON: CHET:
Am I? Oh….sure. Maybe.

VLADIMIR: STU:
I’m glad to see you back. I thought you Could be.
were gone for ever.
CHET:
ESTRAGON: Let’s see.
Me too.
(MAN NUMBER ONE whistles as if calling a
VLADIMIR: dog off left. Pause)
Together again at last! We’ll have to
celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) STU:
Get up till I embrace you. It wouldn’t be bad for my clothes.

ESTRAGON: (irritably) CHET:

Not now, not now. Clothes?

24
VLADIMIR: (hurt, coldly). STU:
May one inquire where His Highness It’d be good for my clothes, I said. It’d
spent the night? be like taking a bath with my clothes on.

ESTRAGON: CHET:
In a ditch. Sure. It’d be the same for me, I guess.

VLADIMIR: (admiringly). STU:

A ditch! Where? Sure. Why don’t you go over there and
see if you can see any cloud formations?
ESTRAGON: (without gesture)
Over there. (He points downstage. CHET gets up and
crosses downstage like an old man. He
VLADIMIR: stands center and looks up at the sky,
And they didn’t beat you? then speaks like an old man.)

ESTRAGON: CHET:
Beat me? Certainly they beat me. Well, well, well, well. I tell ya’, boy. I tell
ya’. Them’s some dark ones, Mel. Them’s
VLADIMIR: really some dark ones.
The same lot as usual?
STU: (Talking like an old man)
ESTRAGON: Dark, eh? How long’s it been since ya’
The same? I don’t know. seen ‘em dark as that?

VLADIMIR: CHET:
When I think of it...all these years...but How long’s it been? Long? How long?
for me…where would you be… STU:
(Decisively.) You’d be nothing more than Yeah. How long a time, Clem?
a little heap of bones at the present
minute, no doubt about it. CHET:
Long a time? Well, it’s been a piece. A
ESTRAGON: piece a’ time. Say maybe, off a year or
And what of it? so. Maybe that.

VLADIMIR: STU:
(gloomily). It’s too much for one man. A year, eh?
(Pause. Cheerfully.) On the other hand
what’s the good of losing heart now, CHET:
that’s what I say. We should have Yep. Could be longer.
thought of it a million years ago, in the
nineties. STU:
Longer?
ESTRAGON:
Ah stop blathering and help me off with CHET:
this bloody thing. Yep. Could be two or three year since i
seen ‘em all dark like that.
VLADIMIR:
Hand in hand from the top of the Eiffel STU:
Tower, among the first. We were That’s a piece a’ time, Clem. That’s for
respectable in those days. Now it’s too sure.
late. They wouldn’t even let us up.

25
 (Estragon tears at his boot.) What are CHET:
you doing? Yep! Yep! (He whistles loudly and starts
doing a dance like an old man.)
ESTRAGON:
Taking off my boot. Did that never STU:
happen to you? (Normal voice) Hey! Come back!

From COWBOYS #2 by Sam Shepard

From WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel

Beckett
Copyright: Grove Press Inc. 1954
Pages 7-8

From WAITING FOR GODOT by Samuel

Beckett
Center Theatre Group, March 2012
Directed by Michael Arabian
Set Design by John Iacovelli

From COWBOYS #2 by Sam Shepard

The Theatre School at DePaul, February 1984
Directed by Joseph Guastaferro
Scene Design by Terrance McClellan

26
Classroom Exercise #3: RHYTHM by Sam Shepard

If everything could be sung to the standard rock and roll progression -- C, A minor, F,
G chords -- then everything’d be simple. How many variations on a single theme. The
greatest drum solo I ever heard was made by a loose flap of tarpaulin on top of my car
hitting the wind at eighty. The second best is windshield wipers in the rain, but more
abstract, less animal. Like the rhythms of a rabbit scratching his chin. Vision rhythms are
neat like hawk swoops and swan dives. Slow motion space rhythms. Digging rhythms like
shovels and spades and hoes and rakes and snowplow rhythms. Jackhammer rhythms make
Ginger Baker and Keith Moon look like punk chumps. Oilcan rhythms, ratchet wrench
rhythms. Playing cards in bicycle spokes. A string of rapid-fire, firecracker rhythms.
Propeller rhythms. Cricket rhythms. Dog claws clicking on hardwood floors. Clocks. Piston
rhythms. Dripping faucets. Tin hitting tin in the wind. Water slapping rocks. Flesh slapping
flesh. Boxing rhythms. Racing rhythms. Rushing brooks. Radio static buzz in a car when
the engine is the dictator. Directional turnsignal blinkers. Off and on neon lights. Blinking
yellow arrows. Water pumps. Refrigerator hums. Thermostatic-controlled heating systems.
Clicking elevators with the numbers lighting up for each floor. Snakes sliding through grass.
in fact any animal through grass. At night. Buoy lights. Ship signals. Airplane warnings.
Fire alarms. Rhythms in a stick car horn. Eating rhythms. Chewing rhythms. The cud of a
cow. The chomp of a horse. Knives being sharpened. Band saws. Skill saws. Hack saws.
Buzz saws. Buck saws. Chain saws. Any saw rhythm. Hammers and nails. Money clanking
in a poker game. Cards shuffled. Bus meters. Taxi meters. Boiling water rhythms. Clicking
ballpoint pens. Clicking metal frogs. Roulette wheel spinning rhythms. Tire rhythms.
Whittling. Stitching. Typing. Clicking knitting needles. Parrots sharpening their beaks on
wood. Chickens scratching. Dogs digging for moles. Birds cleaning their feather. Cocking
guns. Spinning guns. Bolt actions. Lever actions. Snapping ginger nails. Finger popping.
Cracking knuckles. Snapping bones. Farting. Spitting. Blinking eyes. Blowing nose.
Coughing without congrol. Candle flicker rhythms. Creaking houses. Thawing ice. And you
call yourself a drummer?

- From HAWK MOON by Sam Shepard, (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1973), 63-64.

27
Lesson 3: Inspired by Sam Shepard
Includes:
-Selections of representative pieces by Shepard to be read aloud
-Quotes from the Playwright: Regarding Secrets & Added Dimensions, On
Endings
-A creative writing exercise and a classroom activity encouraging leadership
and collaboration

Shepard is an extraordinarily prolific writer. In addition to his numerous plays, he has

published several collections of short stories and has also penned a number of
screenplays.

Quote by Shepard:

Regarding Secrets and Added Dimensions

“Every play is a discovery. You create a framework...and leave something open
in the hope you will discover something…..with a really great writer like Samuel
Beckett, every time he writes he is approaching a certain kind of secret. As he
approaches it the audience is approaching it too. As soon as you name it, you
kill it. There is no question of naming it and having it at the same time.”
-Interviewed by Michael White, ‘Underground Landscapes’, The Guardian, 20
Feb. 1974, pg. 8

Classroom Activity #1: Reading Samples of Shepard (5-10 minutes)

For Teachers: You will need to print out materials for this lesson. They can
be found following this lesson plan: Excerpts for Classroom Activity #1.

DIRECTIONS:
- Clear a space in the center of the room (if one does not already exist)
- Gather students in a circle, sitting or standing
- Select someone to begin, and have each student read up to a full stop or the end of a
line.
- The student next to them should then read to the next sentence/phrase to the full stop.
- Continue around the circle until the piece is completed.

You may choose to read as many selections as time permits.

Following each selection, you may choose to ask students to reflect on what they thought
the piece was about, any impressions it gave them, any observations they made, etc. citing
the texts as specifically as possible.

28
 Quote by Shepard:
On Endings
“I think it’s a cheap trick to resolve things. It’s totally a complete lie to make
resolutions: l’ve always felt that, particularly in the theatre when everything’s
tied up at the end with a neat little ribbon and you’re delivered this package.
You walk out of the theatre feeling that everything's resolved and you know
what the play’s all about. So what? It’s almost as though why go through all
that if you're just going to tie it all up at the end? It seems like a lie to me -
the resolutions, the denouement and all the rest of it. And it’s been handed
down as if that is the way to write plays... I never know when to end a play.
I’d just as soon not end anything. But you have to stop at some point, just to
let people out of the theatre. I don't like endings and I have a hard time with
them. So True West doesn't really have an ending; it has a confrontation. A
resolution isn't an ending; it’s a strangulation.”
-Interviewed by Amy Lippman, as above, p. 59

Classroom Activity #2: Creative Writing Inspired By Shepard (15-20 minutes)

DIRECTIONS:
- Give students 15-20 minutes to create their own composition inspired by Shepard.
- The piece can be a monologue, a short story, a poem, whatever feels right.

For Teachers: If you feel the students need more structure or guidance, you
may choose to tell students to use one of the following phrases as their
inspiration, or to find a way to include include it verbatim in their piece.

-She’s a fireball, isn’t she?

-Don’t you yell at my mother!
-I feel like I’m on enemy territory.
-You’re gonna erase me.
-There’s no one to speak for me now.
-Talk with your teeth.
-I know how to kill.
-This is my last chance to get this done.
-You got everybody buffaloed, don’t ya?
-This whole thing is cruel.

Classroom Activity #3: Directing One’s Own Work (20-30 minutes)

Sam Shepard often directed his own work, creating an exciting collaborative relationship
between himself as a writer, his actors and his role as the director. This exercise is intended
to allow students to hear their own words spoken and performed by another, providing some
distance and perspective on their own work as well as the opportunity to adjust and hone
the piece while guiding their performer to a more effective presentation of their writing.
DIRECTIONS:

29
- Once students have completed Classroom Activity #2, pair them with another student.
- Have the students exchange compositions.
- Give the class 3 minutes for students to work individually on reading the piece aloud to
themselves.
- Then the two students should work together, spending 3-5 minutes each directing their
partner in the performance of their original piece.
- At the end of class, or at the start of the following class period (depending on your
schedule) gather the students together and have them get up and present the work of their
classmate.

For Teachers: The authors may remain anonymous or the students may share
who wrote what they are presenting (this is a decision that the students can
make themselves or that you can make prior to starting the exercise).

Once you have completed the presentation, you may use the following questions to initiate a
discussion in class, or may choose to assign the students the questions as a homework
assignment.

NOTE: We would love to read what your students write! If it is possible for
you to collect and either scan and email us their pieces, or photocopy them
so we can arrange to pick them up from the school, it would be much
appreciated.

[Discussion/Reflection Questions:]

1) What additional impressions/ideas did you get from reading some of Shepard’s prose work?
What other adjectives might you use to describe his writing?

2) How did using Shepard as an inspiration affect the way you wrote? How was your
composition similar or different from other writing that you have done?

3) What was it like to direct another student and to shape the way they presented your own
words? What was it like to present the work of another student?

Common Core Standards Addressed:

Reading:
Literary:
-9-10: Standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10
-11-12: Standards 1, 2, 3, 4
Writing:
- 9-10: Standards 3, 4
- 11-12: Standards 3, 4

30
Excerpts for Classroom Exercise #1: Reading Samples

Deserted

Fangs out it lunged for meat and cracked its head on the glass. Fell back, belly up in a
tropical miniature garden. Like a nine hole pitch and putt minus the pitchers. Squirming,
flopping over, right side up and panting, sides heaving, scales swelling and falling, cracking
off like paint. Begins to move and slide in a sideways shuffle through the moss and fern and
finds a white mouse, swallows it whole like a fly and keeps on going. Avoids a giant pink
fingered tentacle hand with bitten-off nails and axle grease and black and blue thumb. Runs
right into another one and silently screams, slashes with teeth and claws but is caught firm
around the midriff and hoisted like a plane over six feet in the air. Then set down suddenly
and left in a giant open-air arena with no glass forever and stars for lights and moon for
more. Miles and miles of this going on and on. The sound of the tentacled one’s car fading
off in the distance. Can’t move. Frozen with vastness and uncertainty. The silent boom of
the desert. Deserted. Left to be wild and not knowing how anymore. Not needing to be. It
slowly eats its tail and hind legs and belly and swallows itself whole. In the morning a truck
roars by without a driver, the radio blaring. Just the truck, the radio and the desert.

- HAWK MOON, by Sam Shepard (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1973) 31.

Letter From A Cold Killer

Maybe you’d love me more if I didn’t kill for a living

Having to smell my Luger Blackhawk every single night
Counting the bullets like my pag check
It’s true we move around a lot and it’s hard on the kid
You get used to the Dodge and the next day it’s gone
At least he gets to see the lay of the land
He loves the trains and the passport changes
What’s a lie now and then
The blood on the tie
He’s seen that in the movies
Pass it off for lipstick
The powder burned eye
Tell him the matches exploded
Or better yet tell him I’m a Cold Killer
Trying to pay his way through College
And give him a kiss on the head
And tuck him in his bed
And write down what he mumbles in his sky blue sleep
- HAWK MOON by Sam Shepard, (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1973) 66

31
BURIED CHILD: Vince Monologue
I was gonna run last night. I was gonna run and keep right on running. I drove all night.
Clear to the Iowa border. The old man’s two bucks sitting right on the seat beside me. It
never stopped raining the whole time. Never stopped once. I could see myself in the
windshield. My face. My eyes. I studied my face. Studied everything about it. As though I
was looking at another man. As though I could see his whole race behind him. Like a
mummy’s face. I saw them dead and alive at the same time. In the same breath. In the
windshield, I watched him breathe as though he was frozen in time. And every breath
marked him. Marked him forever without him knowing. And then his face changed. His face
became his father’s face. Same bones. Same eyes. Same nose. Same breath. And his
father’s face changed to his Grandfather’s face. And it went on like that. Changing. Clear
on back to faces I’d never seen before but still recognized. Still recognized the bones
underneath. The eyes. The breath. The mouth. I followed my family clear into Iowa.
Every last one. Straight into the Corn Belt and further. Straight back as far as they’d take
me. Then it all dissolved. Everything dissolved.

-BURIED CHILD, Copyright Sam Shepard, 1979

Photo of Profile Theatre’s 2014

production of BURIED CHILD. Vince is
in the center in the red shirt.

32
Lesson 4: What Are You Seeing?

Includes:
- Descriptions about each of the pieces in the tour performance
- Quotes from the Playwright: About Theatre and One Act Form, Audiences
and the Cultural Machine
- Classroom Exercises: Full Body Explorations of Language and Imagery

Quote by Shepard:

About Theatre:
“The fantastic thing about theatre is that it can make something be seen
that’s invisible, and that’s where my interest in theatre is - that you can be
watching this thing happening with actors and costumes and light and set and
language, and even plot, and something emerges from beyond that, and that’s
the image part that I’m looking for, that’s the sort of added dimension.”
- Interview Theatre Quarterly pg. 9

Classroom Activity #1: Pieces Being Performed (5min)

The performance that your students will see will consist of five different pieces. Of those
five pieces, only the second - SAVAGE/LOVE - was written to be performed. The other four
pieces were written to be included in collections of published prose and poetry. The
directors of each piece have decided how they wish to dramatize the work, bringing the
stories to life in a theatrical way.

RHYTHM: Published in HAWK MOON, (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1973)

SAVAGE/LOVE: Collaboration with Joseph Chaikin, produced by the New York

Shakespeare Festival, 1979

HAIL FROM NOWHERE & JUST SPACE: Published in CRUISING PARADISE,

(New York: Knopf, 1996)

CURSE OF THE RAVEN’S BLACK FEATHER: Published in HAWK MOON, (Los

Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1973)

HAWK MOON was Shepard’s first published work, was first released in 1973, and then was
republished, along with his other work MOTEL CHRONICLES, in 1985 by Faber and Faber. It is
a collection of over fifty short stories, monologues and poems and is an effective and
illuminating demonstration of Shepard’s unique and original voice in the early part of his
career.

33
SAVAGE/LOVE: Savage/Love was a collaboration between Shepard and Joseph Chaikin, a
hugely influential figure in the off-off Broadway experimental theatre scene of the 1960’s &
70’s. The piece was created through improvisation and concerns the experience and journey
of love.

CRUISING PARADISE includes 40 short pieces, from fully formed stories to dialogues to
short sketches to excerpts from his diary. Spanning a broad range of topics and tones, the
pieces all are written in the unmistakable voice of Shepard.

Quote by Shepard:

One-Act Form, Audiences, and the Cultural Machine:

“Because of the time we’re living in, the attention span of people watching a
work has changed. It’s no longer possible for an audience to sit alertly through
Long Day’s Journey into Night, even though it’s a great play... But to me, it’s
more interesting to condense time into something that’s full and yet short
enough so that people will be with it, can stay with it, in a certain way.
Beckett, for instance, has shortened and condensed everything down to its
most essential parts, which I think is amazing. And still, Beckett's plays are
considered great works _ which has probably never happened before _ that a
man can write a five-minute piece which is considered a great play. Before,
the attitude always was that you had to write fourteen-act operas...”
-Interviewed by Irene Oppenheim and Victor Fascío, Village Voice, 27 Oct.
1975, p. 82

Classroom Activity #2: Statues (20-25 min)

DIRECTIONS:
- Clear a space in the center of the room if one does not already exist.
- Break students up into groups of three (If your class does not divide evenly into 3’s, have
the extra students work in pairs and one student will “sculpt” twice.)
- In each group, have students decide who is A, B and C.

ROUND ONE:
- Explain that student A is going to be the sculptor and the other two students are the clay.
(Stress that clay has no opinion and is easily shaped by the sculptor.)
- The sculptor will have three modes by which to mold the clay:
1) They can describe what they want the clay to do
2) They can demonstrate themselves what they want the clay to do or
3) They can physically move the clay with their own hands (encourage students to
ask permission before physically engaging with other students: “Is it OK if I touch
you?”)

For Teachers: Remind the clay that while they cannot argue, they will have a turn to be
sculptors and that sculptors should remember that revenge is swift and sweet!

34
- “A” students come to the teacher and get a small slip of paper with a phrase on it
(list of phrases are @ the back of this lesson plan - Phrases for Classroom Exercise
#1).
- Give them approximately 30 seconds to sculpt the other two students into a statue whose
title is the phrase on their piece of paper. (They are not to share this title with the
“clay”!)
- The statue should be static.

For Teachers: 30 seconds is approximate. Give students the time they need
while continuing to remind them they have a deadline. Give them a ten
second warning and then when everyone seems close to done, countdown the
final five seconds.

- Going around the room, have the sculptors introduce their statue:
“Hello, my name is ____________________ and this is my statue
___________________”.
(Encourage students to speak with confidence and ownership.)

ROUND TWO:
- Repeat the exercise with student B as the sculptor.
- On this round the sculptor can only demonstrate to the clay, or physically mold the clay.
They are not allowed to speak.
-Again, allow the sculptors to present their statues to the rest of the class.

ROUND THREE:
- Repeat the exercise one final time with student C as the sculptor.
- This time the sculptor must physically mold the clay and cannot speak or demonstrate.
- Additionally on this round, once the statue is finished, the sculptor should direct the statue
in how to share its own name. (Ex: Both A&B speak at once, or the phrase is split
between the two.)
- Have the statues share their own names, introduced by their sculptor:
“Hi my name is _______________ and this is my statue-” “Statue Name”.

WRAP UP:
Once you have finished all three rounds of the exercise, you may wish to have students
share any impressions they have about Sam Shepard based on the statues they saw and
created. You may also wish to have them reflect about their experience of the exercise,
what they found challenging and what they enjoyed.

35
Classroom Exercise #3: Staging A Monologue (20 min)

DIRECTIONS:
- Break students up into either four or six groups of equal numbers (whichever is more
practical for your classroom size.)
-Give each group a letter: A-D or F.
- Distribute the except from SAVAGE/LOVE (found at the end of this lesson plan:Excerpt for
Classroom Exercise #2).
- Explain that each group needs to:
1) Create a series of tableaux (or statues) to tell the story of their section
2) Decide how they are going to deliver the text that goes with it.
Rules About the Tableaux: Everyone has to be in every tableaux. Every student
must speak at least once. Unlike the previous exercise, these tableaux can have
motion and should flow from one to the next. Each group should choose three to
five tableaux for their section.

- Give students approximately five minutes to figure out and rehearse their presentation.

For Teachers: Give students minute markers. Once you get down to about
two minutes, encourage the groups to begin to rehearse it physically - stop
discussing, actually try it!

- Once the groups are ready, gather students into a large circle in alphabetical order by
group. Beginning with group A, go around the circle, presenting the full monologue excerpt

For Teachers: If the presentations are a little clunky and messy, feel free
to do it twice through, providing some constructive suggestions about
volume and trusting themselves between the first and second rounds.

Upon completing the presentation of the monologue, use the following questions either as
class discussion questions or as writing assignments for homework.

[Discussion/Reflection Questions:]

1) What struck you about the different presentations? What was surprising? What was
engaging/caught your interest?

2) What do they think this monologue is about?

3) Was this experience fun/challenging/uncomfortable/exciting? Why?

Common Core Standards Addressed:

Reading:
Literary:
-9-10: Standards 2, 4, 5
-11-12: Standards 2, 4, 5

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Phrases for Classroom Exercise #1:
For Teachers: All of these phrases are taken from the five pieces the students
will be seeing in the tour [Link] will want to print these out and cut
them into strips before the class period begins

You told me your fear of the night

Savage/Love

I saw you lying there unmourned.

Savage/Love

Blow your breath in my direction.

Savage/Love

I’m haunted by your eyes in the middle of brushing my teeth.

Savage/Love

I’ve designed a special smile for you.

Savage/Love

I wasn’t sure which one of us was killed.

Savage/Love

Your mind races like an engine.

Curse of the
Raven’s Black
Feather
Statue

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I watch the curse wash away.
Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

I’m clean again.

Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

Notice the way the moonbeam shining on the water chases you.
Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

Like evil sisters in disguise.

Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

I don’t walk into occupied rooms.

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

His heart was going now.

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

The water confused him.

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

Daylight was mocking him.

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

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She just took it into her head to wander off.
Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

Then everything accumulated and descended with a vengeance.

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

He gasped like a child thrown into icy water....

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

It’s just a disguise.

Just Space
Statue

Money clanking in a poker game.

Rhythm
Statue

The rhythms of a rabbit scratching his chin.

Rhythm
Statue

This wasn’t necessarily a sign of anger.

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

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A tiny helpless ship caught at the edge of a hurricane.
Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

Not reconciled and reunited.

Hail From
Nowhere
Statue

A two headed beast.

Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

The feather speaks!

Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

I drive and drive like being chased.

Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

Visions of wrecked stars.

Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

Pluck a long plume for luck.

Curse of the
Raven’s
Black
Feather
Statue

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I’m not very far from sleep.
Savage/Love

Is this the face that shows me

Savage/Love

You look like my child.

Savage/Love

It was a moment I wanted to be strong.

Savage/Lov
e

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Excerpt for Classroom Exercise #2: SAVAGE/LOVE

Group A:
The first moment
I saw you in the Post Office
You saw me
And I didn't know.

The first moment

I saw you
I knew I could love you
If you could love me

Group B:
You had sort of a flavor
The way you looked
And you looked at me
And I didn't know if you saw me
And there wasn't any question to ask

I was standing with some papers

I started shuffling the papers
But I didn't know what order to put them in

Group C:
But I figured I wanted to do it in such a way
That it looked like I had some purpose

But I really just wanted to look at your eyes all the time

And you said

Look at me with your eyes
Look at me with your eyes

Group D:
In that first moment
Your face burned into my dream
And right away I had this feeling
Maybe you're lost
Until now

Maybe I'm lost

Until now

And I thought
Maybe I'm just making this up

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Group E:
But your eyes
Looked like they were saying
Look at me more

I would shuffle the papers

Look at you
My breathing changed

Group F:
Then I felt something dissolve
I felt there might be a danger
That anything could happen in the next moment
Maybe you would turn away from me

Or you could say

Let's go together
Forever

- SAVAGE/LOVE, Taken from Sam Shepard, Seven Plays, April 1986, Bantam Books,
Inc., New York. Copyright © 1981 Sam Shepard

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Lesson 5: Reflecting on the Performance

Includes:
- Quote from the playwright: On Emotion and Myth
- In Class Writing Prompts: The experience of the tour performance.
- Final Classroom Exercise: Creating an Ensemble Performance Piece

Classroom Exercise #1: Written Reflection (20-25 min)

DIRECTIONS:
-Read the following quote to your students.
- Lead a short discussion about whether or not they feel anything about the
performance achieved “mythic emotions” as described by Shepard.
-Introduce prompts for individual written reflection.
***Alternatively, you may wish to go directly to the written reflection.***

Quote by Shepard:

On Emotion and Myth:

“In writing a play you can snare emotions that aren’t just personal emotions,
not just catharsis, not just psychological emotions that you’re getting off your
chest, but emotions and feelings that are connected with everybody.
Hopefully. It’s not true all the time; sometimes it’s nothing but
self-indulgence. But if you work hard enough toward being true to what you
intuitively feel is going down in the play, you might be able to catch that kind
of thing. So that you suddenly hook up with feelings that are on a very broad
scale…Then it starts to move in a direction we all know, regardless of where
we come from or why….Those, to me, are mythic emotions.”
- Interviewed by Amy Lippman Dialogue, Apr. 198, pg. 58

Writing Prompts:

- What does “mythic emotions” mean to you? Did you witness or

experience such emotions during the performance?

- In thinking about the performance of the five short pieces by

Shepard, what struck you? Did anything about the performance
disappoint you? Did anything about the performance impress and
move you? Give some specific examples.

- What devices or stylistic choices did the production use to tell the
different stories? Did you think these choices were effective? Why
or why not?

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 - Had you ever seen a play like this production before? Did it
change your perception of what theatre is and can be? Did you feel
like it was theatre or some other kind of performance?

Classroom Activity #2: Putting It All Together (20 min)

DIRECTIONS:
- Divide students into small groups of three to five students.
- Distribute copies of one or all of the excerpts that follow this lesson plan (Excerpts
for Classroom Activity #2).

***For Teachers: Each of the pieces come from Shepard’s HAWK MOON. If
the students are given multiple pieces, each group should select the one
they would like to dramatize.***

- Spend 10-15 minutes creating a way to present the piece to the rest of the class.
- Each group gets up and presents their original performance piece.
- Ideally students memorize the text and present their work without scripts in hand.

The goal is for students draw on the work they have done in all of the
previous lessons as well as anything they learned from watching the
production, and put it all together into an original performance piece.

Classroom Activity #3: Final Thoughts and Discussion (5-10 min)

DIRECTIONS:
- Lead a discussion about students’ impressions or thoughts regarding the
presentations they have just seen and performed.
- Discuss the students’ overall impressions of Sam Shepard, of theatre and of
their experience performing and watching his work.

Common Core Standards Addressed:

Reading:
Literary:
-9-10: Standards 1, 2, 5, 10
-11-12: Standards 1, 2, 5, (7), 10

Writing:
- 9-10: Standards 1, 2, 4, 7
- 11-12: Standards 1, 2, 4, 7

45
Excerpts for Classroom Activity #2:

All Excerpts From HAWK MOON by Sam Shepard, (Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1973)

Heaven’s Fist:
Far shooting star
Scar branded night
Car light snakes a trail
On earth
Far far heaven’s head
Opens up its bony skull
Shows a flash of secret sight
Then fast the fist slams shut
(pg. 24)

46
Long Tall Sally
Cool and weary
Tongue tied down
Back strapped to a wind mill
Round and round
Long Tall Sally
In the alley
Caught and taken
For a witch
(pg. 25)

47
Spirit
Spirit
With a wet nose
Lump on the neck
Sits in corners of my room
Says not to fear
Breaks the windows to breathe
Then leaves
Like that
(pg. 26)

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Stranger
I keep waking up in whoever’s
Body I was last with
Who’s this
Arms like a Viking
Rolled bull muscles
Hair down to here
I’m enough of a stranger as it is
(pg. 27)

49
Shark Move
The way a shark can’t stop moving or he’ll die
That’s you on the floor
Sleep swimming on your back
Spitting out your teeth
Sliding like a puck
I can’t do nothin’ for you ‘less you stand up
What you need is pocket full of crickets
To bring you back to earth
(pg. 67)

50
Power
I can remember racing with my father
The difference in our size and strength
The power in his legs
The quickness in mine
It almost killed him but he won
And afterwards I heard him puke behind the shed
That night I went to bed
And dreamed of power in a train
(pg. 70)

51
Clean Green
Seventy-five fathoms
Down
Six feet to the fathom
Six miles
Out
Drunk to a rip tide
Snared by a rock rope
Dragged to the deep blue
Bottom
Bones unseen
Just the clean green table top
Waiting for the pool shark
To come play fish
(pg. 79)

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