Fool For Love at Briggs Opera House

Shaker Bridge Theatre is thrilled to announce the opening of Fool for Love, an explosive intense landmark myth of the new Wild West by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, True West). January 22 - February 8. Holed up in a stark motel room on the edge of the Mojave Desert, two former lovers unpack the deep secrets and dark desires of their tangled relationship, passionately tearing each other apart. Beaten down by ill-fated love and a ruthless struggle for identity, can they ultimately live with, or without, each other?

The cast of Fool for Love brings some new faces to Shaker Bridge. Sarah Killough (May) Though born and raised in Northern Minnesota, Sarah has a lot of connections to this part of New England: Her father was born in the Northeast Kingdom, her maternal grandmother grew up in Claremont, NH, and her maternal grandfather was a graduate of Dartmouth College. Broadway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Leopoldstadt, Travesties, Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Off Broadway: Once Upon a Mattress (Transport Group) The Village of Vale (Lincoln Center). Regional: A Christmas Carol, Tom Sawyer (Hartford Stage), Back Home Again premiere (Lesher Center), 110 in the Shade, Damn Yankees, Born Yesterday, Lend Me a Tenor (Monomoy Theater), Les Misérables (Pioneer Theater). Film: We Lack, Definition. Training: The Hartt School, Interlochen Arts Academy. Jacob A. Ware (Eddie) makes his SBT debut. Past collabs have been with MACo in Vermont, NJ Rep, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, as well as with the development of Trish Harnetiaux’s Bender and Brian (dir. Knud Adams). Currently he can be seen in the 2026 Sundance Film Festival thriller PRIME. TV credits include: Fallout, Law & Order, Boardwalk Empire (SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble nominee), FBI, Law & Order:SVU. Insta:@ajacobaware. Mark S. Cartier (Old Man) is excited to be back in the Upper Valley. He has been at Shaker Bridge once before over in Enfield, NH in the show Kalamazoo directed by Bill Coons. He worked on this very stage in the Briggs Opera House when it was home to the White River Theatre Festival between 1988 and 1994, appearing in more than a dozen shows over that span. Mark was part of the comedy whodunit Shear Madness at the Charles Playhouse in Boston for 20 years. And he has been a member of the summer company of the Theater at Monmouth in Maine most years since 1997, performing Shakespeare and other classics. He has worked on numerous film and television productions. Nick Sweetland (Martin) has performed a lot in College, some of his larger roles were The Mayor in the Government Inspector, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hercules & King Aetes in Mary Zimmerman's Argonautika, and Gloucester in King Lear.

SBT managing director Adrian Wattenmaker will direct this production. As Associate Artistic Director of Hudson Theatre Works (2018 - 2024), Adrian directed and produced new work by both up-and-coming and established playwrights including John Patrick Shanley, Neil LaBute, Dan O'Brien, and Richard Vetere. From 2021 to 2023, Adrian served as Production Manager for LAByrinth Theater Company, where he helped oversee their transition into a long-term residency at 59E59 Theaters. As part of LAB’s 30th Anniversary Series he directed Margaret Ladd and Lyle Kessler in the premiere of Lyle's play Obituary. On Broadway, Adrian was the Associate Director for the Tony Award nominated production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize winning play Between Riverside and Crazy. As a member of Cooper Square Workshop, Adrian contributed to Off-Broadway productions of Rod Serling's Requiem For a Heavyweight and the award winning production of Sam Shepard's Seduced. Additionally, Adrian has worked with Atlantic Theater Company, Second Stage Theater, Baltimore's Center Stage, Baltimore Theatre Project, HB Playwrights Foundation, Theatre Row, Studio USA/ Universal, NBC (Law & Order and SNL), and Greg Stump Productions/Delamo Films. He has taught at Brooklyn College, Lafayette College, University of Nevada-Reno, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, and is former director of the School of Creative and Performing Arts (SOCAPA), Los Angeles campus. Adrian is a member of The Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit and served on the Drama Desk Awards Nominating Committee. Adrian earned his BA in Theatre Arts from Towson University and his MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College.

Sam Shepard (playwright) has been described by New York Magazine as “the greatest American playwright of his generation,” a description earned as a result of several successful works he created. Gruff, gritty, and bold, Shepard’s work stands out amongst the peers of his time.

Born in 1943, Shepard was the first of three children in what would become a dysfunctional family unit. The family, like many other military families, moved from place to place based on assignments. This shaky foundation laid the groundwork for Shepard’s dark and abstract plays. Shepard made his way to New York in 1963 and began focusing his efforts on writing a series of of avant-garde one-act plays and eventually found his way to the off-off-Broadway scene. After the University of Minnesota offered him a grant in 1966, he won OBIE Awards for Chicago, Icarus Mother, and Red Cross - an unprecedented feat to win three in the same year.

In 1967, Sam wrote his first full-length play, La Turista, an allegory on the Vietnam War about two American tourists in Mexico, and was honored again with his fourth OBIE. Sam received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation. He put his music skills taught to him by his father to use by playing drums and guitar in the rock band, the Holy Modal Rounders, in which he played for the next few years while continuing to write plays.

Shepard went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Best Play in 1978 for Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work as an actor in The Right Stuff in 1983. Despite the demand for Shepard as an actor, he continued to deliver thrilling and edgy plays such as 1980’s True West, considered by some to be the final component of Shepard’s “Family Trilogy” of tragedies. Sam Shepard passed away on July 27, 2017, but his legacy lives on through his timeless works, which continue to be performed and studied by theater artists and audiences alike. Throughout his career, Shepard continued to push the boundaries of theatre and explore new forms and styles. His impact on American theater is undeniable, and he will be remembered as one of the most important playwrights of the 20th century.

Additional Creative Team includes Ben Montmagny, Production Stage Manager and Sound Designer; Joe Isenberg, Fight Choreography; Craig Mowery, Set Designer; Martie Betts, Costume Designer; and Brian Kenyon, Lighting Design.

Tickets available through the Shaker Bridge Theatre website at www.shakerbridgetheatre.org or by calling 802-281-6848 or emailing boxoffice@shakerbridge.org.

Shaker Bridge Theatre is now located at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, Vermont.

Authors

• Sam Shepard