July 2, 1976 Angel City at Magic Theatre S.F. directed by Sam Shepard.
Harry Mann takes over the sax part from Bob Feldman who wrote the score and was to tour in rock gives OLan sax lessons. "Shep had a little reputation at that time, but he was unpretentious, very inspiring to be around." Personality. Rabbit Brown, like other SS heros when he tries to adapt his ancient wisdom to modern circumstances, he becomes the thing which he despises.
Two experiments in using jazz music on stage and in the collage construction of characters.
October 15, 1976 Suicide in B b at Yale Repertory Theatre N.H. directed by Walt Jones and Denise A. Gordon.
A transitional play for SS, with much earlier material the circle on the floor like the hole in the wall in Turista, the creative artist under siege, artist as visionary which Shep uses as a rite of passage to a new period. A burning issue in SS life to be the up and coming artist, the issue of higher stakes, not only the rany(?) kid writing on the street.
The necessity for self-transformation in the artist.
Lives with family, Scarlett Johnson and Jonny Dark in Marin Count in a modest almost ramshackle suburban house just off the main strip "not unlike the one described in Buried Child Takes a lease on the Flying Y. Planning to raise Appaloosas and rides in rodeos.
Jesse has a serious operation.
October 22, 1976 The Sad Lament of Pecos Bill on the Eve of Killing His Wife at Eurecka theatre, part of the Bay Area Playwrghts Festival Bicentennial Project. Directed by Robert Woodruff, the beginning of a long relationship here.
Works with Robert Woodruff at the Magic after The Sad Lament at the Eureka Theatre.
Organizes the Bay Area Playwright's Festival in S.F. and asks Shep for a piece written for the bicentennial but not used. Shep would like to do it at midnight in a cabaret kind of setting.
Woodruff took Magic productions to NYC where Shep refused to go.
October to December 1976 Days of Heaven directed by Terrence Malick. Shepard cast as Chuck. Nestor Almendros comment on Shep "sterling presence" a bande(?) a part an outsider. He didn't hang out with the crew. He was with his woman and stayed apart...
Originally Malick thought of a middle age farmer but then the same age as the immigrants idea of casting SS comes from Rudy Wurlitzer who had met SS though the Rolling Thunder. Malick flew to the ranch and offered him the role Badlands with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek on Charlie Starkweather-like killer.
$1000 a week for 13 weeks. SS cast first before Bujold and Travolta who dropped out, trouble with papers at the border. Film crew fetches him and his truck. Cost of car rental problems bout a pickup in Canada and left quickly and missed a few pickup shots.
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