PATHFINDER MOVIE 2007 CRAB IN MOUTH FULL

The plays express what Shepard called the вЂњdespair and hopeвЂќ of the sixties they act out both the spiritual dislocation and the protean survival instinct of traumatic times.

PATHFINDER MOVIE 2007 CRAB IN MOUTH FULL

ShepardвЂ™s early plays, written between 19, were full of surprises and assaults on the senses-people spoke from bathtubs or painted one another, colored Ping-Pong balls dropped from the ceiling, a chicken was sacrificed onstage. By the following year, the twenty-two-year-old Samuel Shepard Rogers VII, who was known as Steve to his family and friends, had reinvented himself as Sam Shepard, whom the Times described as вЂњthe generally acknowledged вЂgeniusвЂ™ вЂќ of the Off-Off-Broadway circuit. I was fascinated by how they structured themselves.вЂќ Ralph Cook, the Village GateвЂ™s headwaiter, who was a former bit-part actor in Hollywood Westerns and a fellow-Californian, provided him an entry into the downtown scene through a new space he was starting on the Bowery-Theatre Genesis-where Shepard made his playwriting dГ©but, in 1964. There were definitely things there, and I was just putting them down. I felt kind of like a weird stenographer.

вЂњThere were so many voices that I didnвЂ™t know where to start. вЂњI had a sense that a voice existed that needed expression, that there was a voice that wasnвЂ™t being voiced,вЂќ he said.

He got a job busing tables at the Village Gate, and began to write in earnest. Shepard, it turned out, was the answer to those prayers. They want a saint with a cowboy mouth,вЂќ a prescient character in one of ShepardвЂ™s early one-acts said. Though Shepard lacked East Coast sophistication-he was poorly read in those days-he brought news of what he called вЂњthe whacked out corridors of broken-off AmericaвЂќ: its blue highways, its wilderness, its wasteland, its animal kingdom, its haunted lost souls, its violence. Compelling to look at but hard to read-at once intellectually savvy and emotionally guarded-he exuded the solitude and the vagueness of the American West. Shepard was a man of few words, many of them mumbled. My listening was afraid,вЂќ Wesley, the son in ShepardвЂ™s 1978 play вЂњCurse of the Starving Class,вЂќ says, describing his method for coping with his drunken father. Years of living with invasive family aggression-вЂњThe male influences around me were primarily alcoholics and extremely violent,вЂќ he said-had taught Shepard to play things close to his chest: to look and to listen. His smile was tight-lipped-half knowing, half strategic (it hid a mouthful of craggy teeth). His almond-shaped blue eyes looked out at the world with wry detachment they imposed on his passionate nature a mask of cool. Offensive,вЂќ a character in his play вЂњThe Tooth of CrimeвЂќ (1972) says, adding, вЂњYou can paralyze a mark with a good set of eyes.вЂќ Shepard had such a pair. (In addition to writing four dozen or so plays-the latest of which, вЂњAges of the Moon,вЂќ opened last week, at the Atlantic Theatre Company-Shepard, who is now sixty-six, has appeared in some forty films he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as the test pilot Chuck Yeager, in вЂњThe Right Stuff.вЂќ) But even as a new arrival in the city he seemed instinctively to understand the importance of image. He exuded the mystery and swagger of a movie star, which he would eventually become. Shepard was homespun and handsome, with a strong jaw and a dimpled chin. He did, however, have renegade credentials and a store of arcane knowledge: he had been a 4-H Club member, a sheepshearer, a racecourse hot walker, a herdsman, an orange picker, and a junior-college student.

вЂњYou were like a kid in a fun parkвЂќ-he proceeded to knock around the city, вЂњtrying to be an actor, writer, musician, whatever happened.вЂќ He had no connections, no money (he sold his blood to buy a cheeseburger), and nothing to fall back on but his lanky, taciturn Western charisma. Once heвЂ™d taken up residence in Manhattan-вЂњIt was wide open,вЂќ Shepard said. Acting had been his ticket to ride heвЂ™d been so scared at his BishopвЂ™s Company audition that heвЂ™d recited the stage directions. вЂњIt was absolute luck that I happened to be there when the whole Off-Off Broadway movement was starting.вЂќ Shepard, a refugee from his fatherвЂ™s farm in California, had spent eight months as an actor travelling the country by bus with a Christian theatre troupe, the BishopвЂ™s Company Repertory Players. вЂњI just dropped out of nowhere,вЂќ Sam Shepard said of his arrival in New York, at nineteen, in the fall of 1963.

Pathfinder movie 2007 crab in mouth