By Sam Shepherd

Show Only: February 19 and 20

Dinner Theatre and Show Only: February 26, 27, March 5, 6, 12, 13

Dinner at 6:30 PM; Show at 7:30 PM

From Director, Kathy Smithson:

"True West" is written by the infamous Sam Shepard. Many recognize Sam Shepard as a well known actor but not as many know that he is a prolific playwright known well in theatre communities for his strong characters and writing style. He has written more than 45 plays among them “True West,” “Curse of the Starving Class,” “The Tooth of the Crime” and numerous screenplays. None of these are wordprocessed on a dinky netbook but rather pounded out on an old-school manual typewriter, much like the one used in “True West.” The play is about two brothers, the sons of a desert-dwelling alcoholic and a suburban wanderer, who clash over a film script. Austin, played by Pete Mathews, is an achiever, college graduate and professional screenwriter. He is staying at his mom’s house near Los Angeles (instead of at home with his own family) to work on a script he has sold to producer Sal Kimmer, played by Jake Austin. When Austin's brother Lee, played by Dan Malmin, a demented, desert-dwelling petty thief, drops in, he pitches his own idea for a movie to Kimmer. Kimmer then demands that Austin junk his bleak, modern-day California love story and write Lee's archetypal-and trashy-western tale. Eventually, Mom (played by Grace Lynch) enters this hostile environment concerning her sons. Shepard's words embody the rawboned surrealism of America’s shadow interior, so expect to hear this literary piece done complete with the writer’s harshness and expletives kept in. It's clear, funny, and naturalistic. It's also opaque and terrifying. If that sounds contradictory, you're on to one aspect of Shepard's winning genius: the ability to make you think you're watching one thing while at the same time presenting something else.