The Tooth of Crime
DIRECTED BY RANDALL KING
ANNOUNCING NEW DATES
August 3 - 21, 2022
CAST
A rarely produced Sam Shepard masterpiece
A battle for psychic territory rages amid a post-apocalyptic world driven by rock music. In a future dominated by “The Game”, Hoss, an aging rockstar living by his own code is pitted against his young rival Crow, a rising gypsy maverick driven by image and vying for the new status quo. Through celebrity, mortality, and good ole’ rock ‘n’ roll, Sam Shepard unmasks the cyclical nature of fame and succession.
“Visceral and sexual... one of Mr. Shepard’s best plays.”
“Lean and mean and wired to the eyeballs.... a stunning show.”
CREATIVES
RANDALL KING | DIRECTOR
ALLISON F. RICH | MUSIC DIRECTION
DON DALLY | COMPOSITION
GUILIO CESARE PERRONE | SET DESIGN
MADELINE BERGER | COSTUME DESIGN
MAURICE VERCOUTERE | LIGHT DESIGN
STEVE SCHOENBECK | SOUND DESIGN
DANTE CARBALLO | PROJECTIONS DESIGN
FINN KUPEL | PROPS DESIGN
BILL VUJEVICH | SCENIC PAINT
CHRISTOPHER MORTON* | STAGE MANAGER
About the Playwright
SAM SHEPARD (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) is an American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director whose body of work spanned half a century. Described by New York magazine as "the greatest American playwright of his generation.” He wrote 44 plays, 10 of which won Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most given to any writer or director. Shepard received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009.
Shepard's plays are chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, dark humor, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society. His style evolved over the years, from the absurdism of his early Off-Off-Broadway work to the realism of Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class (both 1978).
Penning his first play in 1964, in unprecedented fashion, his next three works Chicago, Icarus's Mother and Red Cross, were all written in 1965, which would earn him his first three Obie Awards. In 1975, Shepard was named playwright-in-residence at the Magic Theatre, where he created many of his notable works, including his Family Trilogy. One of the plays in the trilogy, Buried Child, won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize, and was nominated for five Tony Awards. This also marked a major turning point in his career, heralding some of his best-known work, including True West, Fool for Love, and A Lie of the Mind.