Bas Bleu Theatre Company of Fort Collins Presents Shepard’s “Buried Child”

Bas Bleu Theatre Company of Fort Collins is proud to announce the fourth mainstage production of its 30th Season, BURIED CHILD, by Sam Shepard.

Corn has begun to grow again at a remote farmhouse where the fields have been fallow for decades. A young man returns to his family home only to discover that no one recognizes him. And long-hidden secrets begin to come to light. Shockingly hilarious and darkly poetic, BURIED CHILD is the family reunion that no one anticipated.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the OBIE Award for Playwriting, and nominated for 5 Tony Awards, including Best Play, BURIED CHILD has long been considered Shepard’s masterpiece.  The New York Times called it “a bonafide classic, filled with demonic energy, fierce throat-grabbing humor, and moments of lovely quiet lyricism.” The play vaulted Shepard from Off-Broadway into the first rank of American playwrights. The author of nearly 50 plays, essays, and award-winning screenplays, Sam Shepard was also an acclaimed musician and actor, appearing as Chuck Yeager in THE RIGHT STUFF and Robert Rayburn in the Netflix series BLOODLINE among many other memorable roles.

Set in the Illinois farm country of the 1970’s BURIED CHILD features Jim Valone as Dodge, a crusty couch-bound patriarch, sarcastically bantering with his wife Halie, played by Nancy Patton, a paragon of prim propriety, lost in romantic dreams of the past.

Jeffrey Bigger plays Tilden, a former All-American, now lost and displaced after a long absence in New Mexico, happy only amidst the tall stands of the miraculously sprouted ocean of corn.

Brett Schreiber is Vince, Dodge and Halie’s grandson, a hip New York musician searching for his roots. He arrives home with his girlfriend Shelly, played by Elisabeth Sells, an LA-raised California girl looking to experience a world of Norman Rockwell turkey dinners who swiftly realizes she is in over her head. Adding to the unraveling of family secrets are Nick Boeder as Bradley, the frustrated and furious middle son of Dodge and Halie, and Dan Rilling as Father Dewis, a visiting pastor frighteningly out of his depth.

The production is directed by Steve Keim, who helmed last season’s passionate pet romp, RED HANDED OTTER, working again with inventive costume designer, Terri Gerrard. Rounding out the design team are award-winning designers Brian Miller, multitasking on striking set and lighting design and Grant Putney, working his sound design magic.

Called, “Smart, subtle, and shocking, with wickedly funny dialogue”, BURIED CHILD will be presented April 7th thru April 23rd at Bas Bleu Theatre, 401 Pine Street in Fort Collins. Performances begin on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and at 2:30 pm for the Sunday matinees. Friday, April 7th is a pay-what-you-will/preview performance.

Tickets: $30/adult, $25/senior, $8/student, $6/Quest card (please contact the box office for details about this rate), Pay-what-you-will/preview performance. Tickets can be purchased at basbleu.org or by calling the box office at 970-498-8949.