Shepard’s "Curse of the Starving Class"
At TheatreZone, April 15 - May 8

Opening at Chelsea's TheatreZone on April 15, the Obie Award winning “Curse of the Starving Class” is a darkly comic exploration of the American family psyche.

Written by Sam Shepard, the play focuses on the dysfunctional Tate clan -- a drunken dreamer of a father, burned-out mother, rebellious teenage daughter, and idealistic son -- as they struggle for control of the rundown family farm in a futile search for freedom, security, and ultimately meaning in their lives.  A major work by one of the American theatre's most respected writers, this examination of the dislocations of contemporary American society has been produced with great success in both London and New York.

“Curse of the Starving Class” will be directed by Paul Melone, who comes to TheatreZone after recently directing Stephen Adly Guirgis' “Our Lady of 121st Street” for SpeakEasy Stage Company.  In addition to previously directing “The Shape of Things” for SpeakEasy and “A Fair Affair” for Boston University, he has worked with the Boston Playwrights' Theatre and the American Stage Festival.

Playwright Sam Shepard spent several successful seasons with off-off-Broadway groups such as La Mama and Caffe Cino and was playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco for a number of years. He has written more than 45 plays including “True West “and “Fool for Love,” won 11 Obie awards plus the Pulitzer Prize for “Buried Child.” Shepard has acted in several feature films, including “The Right Stuff,” for which he earned an Academy Award nomination.

Shepard worked as a stable hand, herdsman, orange picker, sheep shearer, bus boy and musician before beginning his writing career in New York in 1964. A product of the 1960s counterculture, Shepard combines humor with grotesque satire, myth, and a sparse language to create a subversive pop art vision of America.  

TheatreZone was founded in 1995 to produce challenging and provocative theatre works, and to make participation in the arts accessible to the community both as audience and participant through affordable prices, educational programs for youth, opportunities for members to stretch into new creative capacities, and the creation of the Chelsea Theatre Works.

Performances of “Curse of the Starving Class” are at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St. in Chelsea.    Tickets are $15 at the door and $12 in advance. For information call 617-887-2336 or visit www.theatrezone.org.

-- OnStage Boston

4/4/04