Give Now  »

"The Wolfman of Greene County" by Alan Shepard

Playwright and actor Alan Shepard is a summer theater veteran. He's worked at the Brown County Playhouse in Nashville, the Crossroads Repertory Theatre in Terre Haute and for the past three years at the Shawnee Theatre of Greene County.

So far this summer he's put on black face to play a famous Italian tenor's Cleveland performance as Othello in Lend me a Tenor . He's donned the torn T-shirt of Tennessee Williams' scruffy Stanley for Streetcar Named Desire. In his next appearance, in The Wolfman of Greene County he'll be in an even more extreme bit of costuming.

Last year Shepard contributed a take on the Dracula legend that was such a hit with the audience that this year he's back with another thriller. "I was so pleased with the positive response that the Shawnee audience gave my show last year, that I wanted to make this year's a gift to them. So, I looked back to another of the scary figures from those late nights with the TV and picked the wolf man. And yes, I will be appearing as the hairy guy."

"I've actually set my play in Greene County and made it my take on the small town life and the transformations that are possible. There's a bit of magic, some suspense, a little humor, a slight nod to religious sensibility and of course a chance to be just a little scared in the safety of the theater."

"I think it's interesting that both the story of Dracula and of the wolfman are tales about transformation, about changes that are both freeing and confining. Like a lot of changes they are in some ways forced on the characters."

Support For Indiana Public Media Comes From