Sam Shepard Videos : Intro to Acting Final Scene - "True West"

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Intro to Acting Final Scene - "True West"

A scene from "True West" by Sam Shepard performed in the Intro to Acting class taught at Temple University in the Spring of 2009. True West is about the sibling rivalry between two estranged brothers who have reconnected. Austin, the younger brother, is a Hollywood screenwriter writing a screenplay while house sitting for his mother, who is vacationing in Alaska. His older brother, Lee, appears at the house after the two have not seen each other for years. Lee is a drifter and thief and has been living in the desert. The two are not on good terms, but Austin attempts to appease his older brother, who is more dominant. Lee meets Saul, the movie producer who has been collaborating with Austin, and charms him. Lee ends up winning a bet against Saul in a round of golf, the victory granting Lee a chance to write a screenplay of his own for Saul to produce. Austin is happy to hear the news until he discovers that, because of this, Saul is dropping his project to make room for Lee's. Over the course of that evening and into the next morning, the two brothers drink themselves into a stupor and argue and fight as Lee struggles to write his screenplay with his brother's assistance. In the morning their mother returns from her vacation early and discovers the house is a mess, but is too senile to care in the way a normal person would. Austin ends up strangling Lee with a telephone cord, but Lee lives. The play ends with Lee standing up and scowling at Austin. Austin scowls back and ...

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