True West Sam Shepard

Concept Statement True West, by Sam Shepard, is a story that follows two brothers and their experiences with writing. It begins with an awkward conversation between the brothers, Austin and Lee, while Austin writes. Then, they try to experience each other’s lives; Austin tries stealing and Lee attempts to write a screenplay. In the end, Austin snaps and the brothers get into an intense, violent, dramatic fight. True West is an ironic story of two brothers that essentially switch roles within their exploration of each other’s lives. We think that important elements that need to be addressed are period, costumes, props, set, sound, lights, and other key elements including character emotions and relationships. Regarding period, we decided to take a unique approach. Instead of setting it in the 1980s, like the original, we would like to modernize it, so it will be set in the current time. We think this is a good idea, because the themes are still relevant today. It will make it more accessible

Since we are doing a modern interpretation, we will be switching these for more modern versions. Instead of a typewriter, we will use a laptop. Instead of an old time television, we will use a flat screen television. Beer does not change much, so we will leave that the same. Since the phone cord is as significant as the phone, because of the strangling, we cannot simply switch the old phone for a cell phone. To preserve the quality of the cord, we will have the cell phone be on a charger and the strangling will occur with the charging cord. Some questions we have for the designers about props include: how do we prevent the props from being a distraction? Should we have all of the props that the script calls for? Do you have any other suggestions for props? Do you think the charger cord is a good idea or should we use something