Shepherd's Bush, London.
Working class, later Marowitz gets them into N. London Hampstead neighborhood.
Naseem Kahn a writer for Time Out. Quote on the look of the house. Owns a greyhound with the name from a Bond novel Keywall Spectre.
Good quote on dog racing and the dream of being an owner at a cheaper price than horses.
Good quote on being American.
Buys 50 acres in Nova Scotia and raises alfalfa and wheat...Canadian citizen.
Good quote on NYC theatre "living in this kind of tight insular, protective way..."
To England to become a musician.
Description of the nuturing London theatre scene...Best plays Action Tooth in three years productions of Turista, Icarus, Cowboy Mouth Unseen Hand. Two productions of Tooth and world premier of Geography and Little Ocean..." Feminist Revue.
Marowitz quote on Shepard and SW charm. Huck Finn also Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi.
"Written in a nutty, juvenile scrawl in a series of lined notebooks."
July 17, 1972 The Tooth of Crime at the Open Space London. Directed by Charles Marowitz. Quote on language. Michael Weller plays Star Man, Blunderpuss.
"Uncompehended in London".
Locked in a battle with Marowitz over interpretation of the play and ownership of the rights for an American production-with agent to stop production.
Shep wanted Rip Torn inspires Hoss at the Public versus Keith Richards as Crow.
Jackson's Dance tries for Theatre Genesis directed by Murray Mednick gives the play to Jacques Levy (trips back and forth to the states) later runs into problems with Jackson widow.
Shep finds stardom valuable only insofar as it recognized heroism, authenticity, mastery or accomplishment, American values. Patti Smith is frightening. "Pop notion of stardom as pure fantasy, the self hype of Andy Warhol superstardom, a game played with nobody keeping score." Self projected image ingrained in contemporary culture. Shep in Time Out. "They're all killers but they treat their situation like rock musicians-this whole macho thing, y'know, this masculinity trip. And I was real interested in that, 'cause there seems to be a lot of that going on in every aspect of American life from pimps to Nixon. People competing in life and death situations with their images of who they are." FEMINIST ISSUE "Craving death. Death has become really hip in New York." ROMANTIC FASCINATION WITH DEATH a critique.
Shep wrote a three act version set in a prison which he burns.
Tooth breaks with earlier work-clear cut characters-forward driven story. No sign of bold visual imagery or real time onstage actions of the early one acts. Language is Shepardian in its pop-drenched references and its monological flights. Wholly invented. Tongue of the droogs in Clockwork Orange 1971. End of the 60's death scenes. Title from symbolist (romanitic fascination with death). Stephane Mallarme's poem "Anguish," "a heart which the tooth of no crime can wound..."
Shechner production at the same time.
Tony Richardson film not produced and British immigration did not give him the lengthly visa forcing him to return to the US at one point.
No money harassed by police for a minor drug bust???no source.
Jim Sharman quote "how the Velvet Underground was the best band ever and wouldn't Lou Reed have been great in Tooth."
Describes his production of Unseen Hand at the Royal Court with do wap backup and other parodies and remounts Tooth at the Royal Court. Willie the Space Freak and Crow are played by Richard O'Brian who wrote The Rocky Horror Picture show and appears as Riff Raff. Shep quote on The Who concert "It took me a long time to give up the fantasy that a play could ever have the same unanimous impact as a piece of music, but this really drove it home."
Good family time not only with theatre crowd. Rather be around people who don't give a shit about his work.
Summers on the farm in Nova Scotia and at home in London.
November 1972 Tooth of Crime. Princeton stars Frank Langella.
Schechner's production Shep saw in Vancouver BC and "actively hated it". Won an Obie.
Meets with Peter Brook and joins a Gurdjieff study group. Awareness self-confidence and depth of character both in himself and in his plays. Gurdjieff says quote like the transformation exercies or like the Goffman model of personality. "You will be astonished at what a multitude of these Ivans and Nicholases live in one man." Shakes off habitual out-moded beliefs. Look inside for self-understanding and "deliver themselves from their self-created chaos by ceaseless questioning of everything..." Compare to Shep lamenting humanity's fragmented destructive character...development of consciousness of self and of others and acceptance of all aspects of a human being.
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