Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Independent American Drama Assignment Part 2: Script and Bibliography
Script
Buried Child
Sam Shepard
Cast in order of appearance:
- Mom: Andrea Oh
- Dad: Ashleigh Plummer
- Daughter: Cara Roth
- Dodge: Ashleigh Plummer
- Tilden: (unvoiced)
- Halie: Andrea Oh
- Father Dewis: Ashleigh Plummer
- Shelly: (Unvoiced)
- Bradley: Cara Roth
- Vince: (unvoiced)
Introduction with Thesis Statement:
It is revealed later in the plot that Dodge, the head of the family, killed his own wife and son’s child to keep the family from falling apart. Though originally intended to retain prosperity, Dodge's betrayal of his family through murder, in Sam Shepard's Buried Child, suspended familial development by seeding a dysfunctional rift, focusing on how the strain of fixating on achievements alienate relations.
Text
Scene 1:
“(Dodge falls into deep sleep. Tilden just sits staring at him for a while. Slowly he
leans toward the sofa, checking to see if Dodge is well asleep. He reaches slowly under
the cushion and pulls out the bottle of booze. Dodge sleeps soundly. Tilden stands quietly,
staring at Dodge as he uncaps the bottle and takes a long drink. He caps the bottle and
sticks it in his hip pocket. He looks around at the husks on the floor and then back to
Dodge. He moves C. and gathers an armload of corn husks then crosses back to the sofa.
He stands holding the husks over Dodge and looks down at him as he gently spreads the
corn husks over Dodge and looks down at him as he gently spreads the corn husks over
the whole length of Doge’s body. He stands back and looks at Dodge. Pulls out bottle,
takes another drink, returns bottle to his hip pocket. He gathers more husks and repeats
the procedure until the floor is clean of corn husks and Dodge is completely covered in
them except for his head. Tilden takes another long drink, stares at Doge sleeping then
quietly exits L. Long pause as the sound of rain continues. Dodge sleeps on.
The figure of Bradley appears U.L., outside the screen porch door. He holds a
wet newspaper over his head as a protection from the rain. He seems to be struggling
with the door then slips and almost falls to the ground. Dodge sleeps on, undisturbed.)”
(Shepard 25-26)
Scene 2:
“(Halie appears outside the screen porch door, U.L. with Father Dewis. She is
wearing a bright yellow dress, no hat, white gloves and her arms are full of yellow roses.
Father Dewis is dressed in traditional black suit, white clerical collar and shirt. He is a
very distinguished gray-haired man in his sixties. They are both slightly drunk and felling
giddy. As they enter the porch through the screen door, Dodge pulls the rabbit fur coat
over his head and hides. Shelly stands again. Dodge drops the coat and whispers intently
to Shelly. Neither Halie nor Father Dewis are aware of the people inside the house.)
DODGE. (To Shelly in a strong whisper.) You promised! (Shelly sits on stairs again.
Dodge pulls coat back over head. Halie and Father Dewis talk on the porch as they cross
toward R. interior door.)
HALIE. Oh father! That’s terrible! That’s absolutely terrible! Aren’t you afraid of being
punished? (She giggles.)
DEWIS. Not by the Italians. They’re too busy punishing each other. (They both break out in giggles)
HALIE. What about God?
DEWIS. Well, prayerfully, God only hears what he wants to. That’s just between you and
me of course. In our heart of hearts we know we’re every bit as wicked as the Catholics.
(They giggle again and reach the R. door.)
HALIE. Father, I never heard you talk like this in Sunday sermon.
DEWIS. Well, I save all my best jokes for private company. Pearls before swine you
know. (They enter the room laughing and stop when they see Shelly. Shelly stands. Halie
closes the door behind Father Dewis. Dodge’s voice is heard under the coat talking to
DODGE. (Under coat, to Shelly.) Sit down, sit down! Don’t let ‘em buffalo you. (Shelly
sits on stair again. Halie looks at Dodge on the floor, then looks at Bradley asleep on the
sofa ands sees his wooden leg. She lets out a shriek of embarrassment for Father Dewis.)
HALIE. Oh my gracious! What in the name of Judas Priest is going on in this house!
(She hands over the roses to Father Dewis.) Excuse me Father. (Halie crosses to Dodge,
whips the coat off him and covers the wooden leg with it. Bradley stays asleep.) You
can’t leave this house for a second without the devil blowing in the front door!
DODGE. Gimme back that coat! Gimme back that goddamn coat before I freeze to
HALIE. You’re not going to freeze! The sun’s out in case you hadn’t noticed!
DODGE. Gimme back that coat! That coat’s for live flesh not dead wood. (Halie whips
the blanket off Bradley and throws it on Dodge. Dodge covers his head again with
blanket. Bradley’s amputated leg can be faked by having it under a cushion on the sofa.
Bradley’s fully clothed. He sits up with a jerk when the blanket comes off him.)
HALIE. (As she tosses blanket.) Here! Use this! It’s your anyway! Can’t you take care of
BRADLEY. (Yelling at Halie.) Gimme that blanket! Gimme back that blanket! That’s my
blanket! (Halie crosses back toward Father Dewis who just stands there with the roses.
Bradley thrashes helplessly on the sofa trying to reach the blanket. Dodge hides himself
deeper in the blanket. Shelly looks on from staircase, still holding cup and saucer.)
HALIE. Believe me, Father, this is not what I had in mind when I invited you in. I keep
forgetting how easily things fall to pieces when I’m not here to hold them together.
DEWIS. Oh, no apologies please. I wouldn’t be in the ministry if I couldn’t face real life.
(Father Dewis laughs self-consciously. Halie notices Shelly again and crosses over to
her. Shelly stays sitting. Halie stops and stares at her.)
BRADLEY. I want my blanket back! Gimme my blanket! (Halie turns toward Bradley
HALIE. Shut up Bradley! Right this minute. I’ve had enough! It’s shameful the way you
carry on. (Bradley slowly recoils, lies back down on sofa, turns his back toward Halie
and whimpers softly. Halie directs her attention to Shelly again. Pause.)
BRADLEY. You gave me that blanket.”
(Shepard 56-58)
Scene 3:
“HALIE’S VOICE. Dodge? Is that you Dodge? Tilden was right about the corn
you know. I’ve never seen such corn. Have you taken a look at it lately? Dazzling.
Tall as a man already. This early in the year. Carrots too. Potatoes. Peas. It’s like
a paradise out there, Dodge. You oughta take a look. A miracle. I’ve never seen
it like this. Maybe the rain did something. Maybe it was the rain. (As Halie keeps
talking offstage, Tilden appears from L., dripping with mud from the knees down.
His arms and hands are covered with mud. In his hands he carries the corpse
of a small child at chest level, staring down at it. The corpse mainly consists of
bones wrapped in muddy, rotten cloth. He moves slowly D. toward the staircase
ignoring Vince on the sofa. Vince keeps staring at the ceiling as though Tilden
wasn’t there. As Halie continues, Tilden slowly makes his way up the stairs.
His eyes never leave the corpse of the child. The lights keep fading.) Good hard
rain. Takes everything straight down deep to the roots. The rest takes care of
itself. You can’t force a thing to grow. You can’t interfere with it. It’s all hidden.
Unseen. You just gotta wait ‘til it pops up out of the ground. Tiny little shoot.
Tiny little white shoot. All hairy and fragile. Strong though. Strong enough to
crack the earth even. It’s a miracle, Dodge. I’ve never seen a crop like this in
my whole life. Maybe it’s the sun. Maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s the sun. (Tilden
disappears above. Silence. Lights go to black.)”
(Shepard 73)
Transitions:
Transition to scene 1:
This scene is Tilden’s symbolic way of getting revenge on Dodge for his son’s murder. By covering him in corn husks he is not only “burying him” but also allowing the empty corn husks to symbolize the absence of prosperity among the family and their farm.
Transition to scene 2:
The nasty fight that takes place here shows just how dysfunctional the family has become after Dodge’s actions. The family is split apart, they are shown to be emotionally immature and unable to deal with one another.
Transition to scene 3:
At the end of the play, the family finally renews itself when the secret of the buried child is revealed, the child’s corpse is unearthed, and the family passes into a new age the hands of Vince who intends to restore the family’s prosperity. The corn Halie finally sees out the window is symbolic of the family’s rebirth.
Conclusion:
In the end of the play, it explains that the family’s dysfunction is because of the act that Dodge commits and even though he intended to bring his family together, it actually causes a rift in which the family was suspended by the strain of trying to retain prosperity.
Bibliography
Barbara. Original Wood Staircase, 1912. Digital image. Folkways Notebook. Blogspot, 14 Oct.
2010. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
"Framing Device." TVTropes. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013. <http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/
pmwiki.php/Main/FramingDevice>.
Hull, Jim. "Framing Devices and What They Mean." Narrativefirst. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.
<http://narrativefirst.com/articles/framing-devices-and-what-they-mean>.
Old Couch. Digital image. Junk King. Junk King, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
"Sam Shepard." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Shepard, Sam. Buried Child: A Play in Three Acts. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1979.
25-73. Print.
"The Sam Shepard Web Site." The Sam Shepard Web Site. Coymoon, 5 Nov. 2005. Web. 28 Oct.
2013.
Watson, Jeri. "1970s and '80s Were a Period of Change in American Society." American History.
N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2013. <http://www.manythings.org/voa/history/224.html>.
Independent American Drama Assignment Part 1: Title, Rationale and Summary Sheet
Buried Child
Andrea Oh, Ashleigh Plummer, Cara Roth
Ms. Nicole Wilson
AP English Literature and Composition
30 October 2013
2007, Form B. Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then,in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
I have read and understand the sections in the Student Handbook regarding Mason High School's Honesty/Cheating Policy. By affixing this statement to the title page of my paper, I am certifying that I have not cheated or plagiarized in the process of completing this assignment. If it is found that cheating and/or plagiarism did take place in the writing of this paper, I understand the possible consequences of the act, which could include a "0" on the paper, as well as an "F" as a final grade in the course.
Rationale
The 2007 B AP prompt focuses specifically on acts of betrayal. Because Dodge’s betrayal of his family played such a central role in the progression and outcome of the play, we felt this prompt would allow us to grasp the essence of the work as a whole. The prompt mentions how “family may betray a protagonist.” Although Buried Child does not single out any one member of the family as the protagonist, several members betray each other, firstly with Halie cheating on Dodge with their own son, and later with Dodge killing the resulting child . The prompt worked best with this main idea, and helped to tie the second theme of the disappearance of the west and the loss of the American dream which, in the play, occurred due to betrayal among the members of the family.
We chose the first excerpt from Act 1 because it portrayed the hidden emotions of the family. Tilden’s symbolic “burial” of Dodge shows a sense of revenge that he, in his mentally deadened state, cannot fully express: in part because he knows that he has also betrayed the family. The empty corn husks also serve to represent the central theme of the loss of prosperity among the family after said acts of betrayal. The second scene we used, at the beginning of Act 3, showed the dysfunctionality that had been set among the family after Dodge’s actions. This dysfunctionality is a key part of how the characters in the play interact with and affect each other. The final scene shows the change throughout the play and the final result: the renewal of the family through Vince, who intends to restart the farm, and Tilden, who literally unearths the family’s dark secret, giving them a chance to reconcile.
For our framework, we decided to mirror the familial situation found in Buried Child, with our own version of a dysfunctional family. It is a modern, and relatable, example of how the high grade expectations of parents affect the child. By utilizing a situation familiar to many, we are able to both engage the audience as well as provide a narrator that will explain the scenes. The choice of puppets was to make a clear indication between the memories of the daughter and the happenings of the play. The usage of puppets as well as live actors creates divergent casts of characters, that allow a command of the different mood that the kitchen table setting and actual play require. Puppets also resolved the issue of casting actors, since the play contained more characters then we had group members. Finally, the usage of puppets mirror the childish nature of the family.
Buried Child
General Synopsis:
The play follows Dodge, Halie, Shelly, Tilden, Vince, and Bradley as the dark secret they share is revealed. Dodge, an alcoholic septuagenarian in ill health living his final days on a decrepit sofa, share a marriage with Halie comprised almost entirely of yelling through different floors of the house. Tilden, their son, lives at home because of his tendency to get into trouble. He often carries in crops from the backyard, but scorned for this because Halie and Dodge insist that nothing has grown there in decades.
When Vince decides to pay his grandparents a visit with his girlfriend Shelly, he is surprised to find his father, Tilden, living at their house. This initial surprise quickly morphs into shock when nobody in his family seems to recognize, or even remember him. Shelly is skeptical about Vince's insistence that they are his family, but stays behind when he goes out to pick up some whiskey for Dodge. It is during his absence that she learns about the secret that drove the family into ruins:Tilden and Halie’s bastard child, dead and buried in the backyard. Shelly also meets their third son, an amputee with a temper named Bradley. All hell breaks loose when Haile returns home arm-in-arm with Father Dewis. Halie, angered by the state of her husband and sons as well as the stranger in the house, fuels a family quarrel by removing Dodge’s blanket. Just as Shelly is about to have a mental breakdown due to the dysfunctionality family, Vince staggers in drunk, pushed to his limits by his relative’s alienation. They drop the act once Halie acknowledges him, and Dodge confesses that he was the one who murdered and buried Tilden’s child.
The damage has been done, and Vince continues to terrorize his family by smashing bottles and kicking Bradley’s wooden leg out of reach. Shelly finally reaches her limit and leaves Vince, while Dodge, sensing his life approaching its end, grants Vince possession of the house. Tilden emerges in the final scene, carrying the unearthed corpse of his son. He lumbers upstairs with it to Halie as her voice is heard: finally recognizing the abundance of crops in their own backyard.
Playwright Background Information:
Born in Illinois in 1943, Sam Shepard wrote almost 50 plays in his lifetime. He also took on the roles of actor and director, sometimes even for his own works. His work, Buried Child, won him the Pulitzer prize in 1978 and was second in a series of plays he wrote on self destructive families. The subjects of his plays were often dark and influenced by his own experiences with his alcoholic father. He also concentrated on the idea of the disappearing west and the loss of the American dream, incorporating heavy symbolism into his writing.
Primary Characters:
- Dodge, in his seventies
- Halie, Dodge’s wife; mid-sixties
- Tilden, their oldest son
- Bradley, their next oldest son, an amputee
- Vince, Tilden’s son
- Shelly, Vince’s girlfriend
- Father Dewis, a Protestant minister
Setting: The living room of a squalid farm home in the 1970s
Key Plot Moments:
- Tilden’s burial of Dodge with corn
- Arrival of Vince and Shelly
- Tilden’s revelation to Shelly about his dead son
- Hailey’s arrival with Father Dewis
- Vince’s drunk return
- Dodge’s confession to the murder of Tilden’s child
- Vince’s inheritance of home
- Tilden’s unearthing of child
Key Quotes:
- Halie: “He can’t look after himself anymore, so we have to do it. Nobody else will do it.” (Shepard 17)
- Dodge: “He’s not my flesh and blood! my flesh and blood’s out there in the backyard!” (Shepard 21)
- Dodge: “You go lay down and see what happens to you! see how you like it! They’ll steal your bottle! They’ll cut your hair! They’ll murder your children! That’s what’ll happen!” (Shepard 37)
- Bradley: “Everything’s turned around now. Full Circle. Isn’t that funny?” (Shepard 49)
- Dodge: “It made everything we’d accomplished look like it was nothin’. Everything was canceled out by this one mistake. This one weakness.” (Shepard 66)
- Vince: “We’d think we were getting farther and farther away. That’s what we’d think.” (Shepard 69)
- Vince: “I’ve gotta carry on the line. It’s in the blood. I’ve gotta see to it that things keep rolling” (Shepard 71)
- Halie: “Good hard rain. Takes everything straight down to the roots. The rest takes care of itself. You can’t force a thing to grow. You can’t interfere with it.” (Shepard 73)
Symbols/Motifs: Crops, rain, buried child, bloodline
Themes: American dream, broken family, failed expectations, strength of familial roots
Stylistic Devices: Shepard uses choppy syntax to mimic normal speech and, more specifically, the erratic nature of the characters who are constantly chattering and fighting with each other. Shepard also utilizes a large amount of symbolism in the play. For example, crops in the play display the family’s journey from death to rebirth: starting from the empty corn husks in the first act to the reveal of a prosperous field of fruits and vegetables in the final scene.
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