Robert is a freelance director and set designer who's lived in Portland for 4-1/2 years. He's been on staff at Stark Raving Theatre for most of that time and is currently a designer in residence at SRT and Mt. Hood Rep.

Most recently, he designed "Darkstep and Dawning" at SRT and "Inherit the Wind" at Mt. Hood Rep. last summer. His set designs have been seen on the stages of SRT, Mt. Hood Rep, Tapestry Theatre, Triangle! Productions, and MediaRites' Theatre Imagine (at IFCC). Robert directed "After the Zipper" at Stark Raving last season and two other shows for them during their summer series. Prior to moving to Portland, he was the artistic director for a youth summer musical theatre camp for 4 years.

"Shepard's play speaks of roots and identity and our ties to ownership of SOMETHING, owning ourselves, owning our land, owning our history, owning tradition. He's an American playwright who speaks at the marrow of America. What I do find facinating about the play is it's, at times, characturish portrayal of these characters. And, at the same time, there is a deep seeded truthfulness in the broadly drawn moments. His text is very American; very muscular; sometimes very lyrical; sometimes short and accented--as if we were at a boxing match (Dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee)." -RT

About the Playwright
Dramaturgy by Rachel Lane

Playwright Sam Shepard was born November 5th, 1943 in Fort Sheridan, Illinois. Most of Shepard's childhood, though, was spent on his family's farm in Duarte, California. Shepard attended San Antonio Junior College, where he studied agriculture. After a year of study, Shepard quit school and joined a theatrical touring company. Later, in San Francisco, Shepard was appointed playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre. In 1963, however, Shepard traded coasts and waited tables while his plays were produced off-off-Broadway at venues including, La Mama, Cafe Cino, and the American Place Theatre.

In a career now spanning four decades, Shepard has won America's most coveted awards for playwrighting, including several Obie Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, for Buried Child, and the Drama Critics Circle Award for True West. For film, Shepard co-wrote Zabriskie Point, with Michelangelo Antonioni, and adapted his own one-act play, Fool For Love, in which he later starred along with actress, Kim Basinger. Shepard continues to work as a playwright, director and actor. His most recent credits are of the acting variety, including roles in Black Hawk Down, (2002), and All The Pretty Horses, (2000).

The film version of Curse of the Starving Class was released in 1997 first internationally, and then widely in the US. It starred Kathy Bates as Ella, James Woods as Weston, Randy Quaid as Taylor, and Henry Thomas as Wesley. (Click Here for more information about the film).