He has been called the "elusive cowboy of American theatre,"and is widely considered to be among America's finest living playwrights.  Few American playwrights have exerted as much influence on the contemporary stage as Sam Shepard.  His plays are performed on and off Broadway and in all the major regional American theatres and widely across Europe.  He has written over forty plays, and yet he is probably best known to the public for his many roles on film. Sam Shepard truly is an icon of the modern theatre.

Buried Child, the play that launched Shepard's fame as a dramatist, and for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1979, remains as powerful, funny and scathing a commentary on the dysfunctional American family, as it was when it was first produced – a recent Broadway production was nominated for two Tony Awards.