Actor and Playwright Sam Shepard Reads at Trinity College Dublin

Posted on: 11 December 2012

The acclaimed actor, playwright and director Sam Shepard delivered an eclectic reading of his work at Trinity College Dublin on December 6th last in front of a large audience.  The public event was hosted by Trinity’s School of English the evening before he was conferred with an honorary degree at Trinity.

At the end of his reading Shepard invited the legendary singer-songwriter, poet and artist Patti Smith on stage, who read from one of their collaborative dramatic works before joining Shepard in a duet.

Shepard is an influential figure in world drama, with an extraordinary body of work to his name which has inspired a generation of writers, filmmakers and theatre practitioners the world over.  Not only a playwright, but also a screenwriter, author of short stories, actor, and director, he is the recipient of many awards. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and  received the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award as a master American dramatist in 2009.

Speaking after the reading, Associate Professor Eve Patten, Head of the School of English, commented: ‘It was a rare pleasure to listen to a writer of such extraordinary range and talent. Sam Shepard gave us everything from prose poetry to dramatic monologue to comic memoir – his performance captivated the entire audience.’