with John Markland

March 25th – May 13th

Sam, the cowboy poet, who tapped into an American voice we all feel deep within us. We will explore some of the themes he seemed caught by, sins of the fathers, becoming the mask you created, somnambulism and being half awake while half asleep, ghosts not yet dead and the lies that bind us.

I’ll be asking you to pick up Motel Chronicles as a bed side companion, so you can let Sam’s voice seep in while we’re doing more of the traditional scene study. I want us to explore the influences and relationships that may have given birth to his stories and characters. I’d like us to immerse in his music, plays, films and writings so that me may get a glimpse of America as he saw it.

Some of the plays we will be exploring are The Late Henry Moss, A Lie of The Mind, The Unseen Hand, Savage/Love, Geography of a Horse Dreamer and then some of the lesser-known plays which will certainly challenge you in developing characters outside of the norm.

You may be asked to work on more than one character at a time and I want research done into the
world of the play, so you are as informed as the person living in those places and times. We may move toward some sort of showcase of Sam’s work but that is not the focus, let’s see how deep we can go and what truth we find.