True West

Sam Shepard

Jan 2001 · L.A. Theatre Works · Narrated by Alfred Molina and Full Cast

About this audiobook

Pulitzer-Prize winner Sam Shepard’s classic comedy is a story of estranged brothers Austin and Lee. Shepard compares and contrasts the reality of the two brothers by forcing them to come to terms with each other, with themselves, and with family.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Dean Cameron, Alfred Molina, Charlotte Rae and Francis Guinan.

About the author

Sam Shepard was born Samuel Shepard Rogers III on an army base in Illinois on November 5, 1943. He briefly studied agriculture at Mount San Antonio College, but dropped out to move to New York in 1962. He wrote more than 55 plays during his lifetime. His first play was produced off-off-Broadway when he was 19 years old and he won the first of his 8 Obie Awards when he was 23 years old. His plays included Chicago, The Tooth of Crime, True West, Fool for Love, A Lie of the Mind, The Late Henry Moss, Heartless, and A Particle of Dread. He received the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Buried Child in 1978. He was an actor for both film and television. His films included Days of Heaven, The Right Stuff, and Baby Boom. He also appeared in the Netflix series Bloodline. He wrote or co-wrote several screenplays including Far North and Renaldo and Clara with Bob Dylan. He also wrote songs with John Cale and Bob Dylan including Brownsville Girl. He wrote several books including Cruising Paradise and Motel Chronicles. He died from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on July 27, 2017 at the age of 73. Charlotte Rae was born Charlotte Rae Lubotsky in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on April 22, 1926. She briefly attended Northwestern University before moving to New York in 1948 to become an actress. She found success on Broadway and off for about 20 years, appearing in 10 productions, most notably as Mrs. Peachum in the 1954 revival of The Threepenny Opera and Mammy Yokum in Li'l Abner in 1956. She also recorded an album, Songs I Taught My Mother: Silly, Sinful and Satiric Selections, in 1955. She appeared in several television shows including Car 54, Where Are You?, The Phil Silvers Show, The Defenders, Barney Miller, and Good Times. She was best known as Edna Garrett, a part she played on Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. She left The Facts of Life at the beginning of the eighth season because of health problems. She continued to appear in off Broadway productions including Happy Days in 1990, The Vagina Monologues in 1993, and the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Pippin in 2000. She appeared in several movies including Hair, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and Ricki and the Flash. Her autobiography, The Facts of My Life written with her son Larry Strauss, was published in 2015. She died on August 5, 2018 at the age of 92.