February 10, 2010 Connect Special

    Throughout Hollywood's history there have been many successful films created by brothers. The Coen Brothers have made 15 movies together, with such classics as “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “Raising Arizona” and “No Country for Old Men.” The Wachowski brothers made The Matrix trilogy – it’ll be left to the reader to decide which of these films are worth mentioning.
    For Sam Shepard's characters Austin and Lee, they may be well on their way to writing the next great American western, if they don't kill each other first.
    Campus Crossings presents “True West” by Sam Shepard at the Emma Kelly Theatre at the Averitt Center for the Arts. Performances will be Feb. 17-19 at 7:30 p.m. Chris Rushing, director of other Averitt Center favorites like “Appointment with Death” and “Waiting for Godot,” brings his dark sense of humor to his newest production.
    “This script is fantastic because of Sam Shepard's ability to capture real brothers with real issues and then put them in this ridiculous situation,” said Rushing. “People do some strange things when they get obsessed with something, and they do even stranger things when there's money involved.”
    Set in their mother's home in East Los Angeles, brothers Austin (Brock Vickers) and Lee (Cameron Bryce) are reunited when their mother goes out of town and asks Austin to house sit. Lee, a drifter and a thief has arrived home after a long stay out on the desert. Austin is trying to work on a screen play he is pitching to a producer the following morning. Things begin to unravel when the producer decides to drop his script and move forward with Lee's idea for a contemporary western.
The only trouble is Lee can't write; he can barely spell. So he coerces Austin in to writing it with him. Tempers flare and frustration boils over as the two try and finish a script. Will they write the script for the next great western, or will they kill each other before they get the chance?
    “True West” contains explicit language and may not be suitable for all ages. Tickets will be $5 for students and $10 general admission.

Print

E-Mail Story

News Letter Sign up

« Previous Story | Next Story »