2023–2024
Buried Child
Playwright: Sam Shepard
November 9, 2023 – November 26, 2023
The Mainstage
About this play
Vince returns to his grandparents' Illinois farm with his girlfriend Shelly, expecting a warm homecoming — instead he finds a family in complete dysfunction. Patriarch Dodge drinks himself to stupor on the couch, Halie rules the house with pious denial, and Tilden wanders in from the garden carrying armloads of corn that shouldn't exist. As the visit deepens, a long-buried secret surfaces from beneath the yard, and the illusions holding the family together finally break apart.
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama (1979) exploring the dark secrets of a midwestern farm family.
About the Playwright
Sam Shepard (born Samuel Shepard Rogers III; November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American playwright, actor, author, and director. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for Buried Child and is widely considered one of the most important voices in American theatre. His plays are marked by mythic images of the American West, family dysfunction, and the collapse of the American Dream. He wrote more than 55 plays and received the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.