Jashn  Sardana

Final  IOP

“Final Individual Oral Presentation”

        

True West is about the sibling rivalry between two brothers. The two brothers seem entirely different - Austin, the younger brother, is a Hollywood screenwriter writing a screenplay while house sitting for his mother, who is vacationing in Alaska. His older brother, Lee, appears at the house after the two have not seen each other for years. Lee is a drifter and thief and has been living in the desert. The two are not on good terms, but Austin attempts to appease his older brother, who is more dominant.

I am playing the character Lee in Sam Shepard’s “True West”, and from my character’s point of view the world is like this...


I am in early 40s, haven’t seen a razor blade in a while, shabby, wholes on my shoes, stains on my jacket and dust all over me. Well, it kind’a happens when you live out in the desert.  So people look at me and I know what they’re thinking. They think I’m a no-good looser.  When I come to think of it, maybe that’s why I steal. Not that I can’t find some damn job or something and make some descent living here and there. But when people look at me I can feel their dislike. They don’t know me, they don’t have an idea what’s beneath, but they look down upon me, despise me. And in return I steal their damn TV sets. So here I am - walking around mom’s kitchen. But it could be different. If I only had the chance.
So here I am – on the edge to beat the hell out’a my brother. You wanna know why? ‘Cause he got freakin’ jealous, the stupid person! The producer hooked on my story and dumped his. It wasn’t my fault! So many times I’ve wondered, what is it like to be Austin, to have a family, a home, a job… To be, you know, respected. When people look at you they greet you and they smile at you and stuff… Maybe that’s the reason I’m roaming the desert. No people there, just cactuses. Yeah, maybe deep inside me I wanted to be like him, like Austin.  I pretend to like the way I live, but hey – who do I think I’m foolin’? And even if I do fool somebody, I can’t fool myself. I want it to be different. And here I am, just about to get on the right track, to get legit, to actually earn some good money… It was my chance to do something, you know… to leave a trace. I owned that chance to Austin, I admit that. And I don’t mind to split whatever money come out of this. I’m grateful and stuff… But it’s not enough for him. He just couldn’t bare that they want my story, the story he said was so flat  Yeah, they want my story, and not his professional crap. I kind’a understand why he feels so bad, cause you know, he does that for a living.  Yeah, must be pretty hard for his ego. But he just went too far, he ruined my opportunity, he totally wasted the whole thing… And now we’re at showdown.

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 My dad… he’s not a bad man, but he has that bad habit with the drinking. It’s hard for me to be around him, ‘cause I hate to see him like this, miserable. I wanna take care of him, give him money or something, but… Let’s be fair – I can hardly deal with my own damn misery. I visit him once in a while, out there in the desert, I even make some plans about how next time when I visit I’ll do something more for him… But then I hit the road and it’s all the same every ...

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