Curse of the Starving Class

In the desolate desert of California, a family tries to make the most out of a dozen dusty acres, an artichoke farm, and the scraps and remnants of the American dream. Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class was his first great full-length expose on the dissolution of the family, heroism, and our national aspirations. By turns violent and hilarious, the play presents Shepard’s gift for language, mythic yearning, and personal dysfunctionality through the lives of a mother, father, and their two teenaged children, locked in an ongoing battle to find themselves.

Curse of the Starving Class is presented by New York University, Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program and the Department of Design for Stage and Film; it is directed by Brian Mertes.