THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard is on his deathbed and he's confronted by characters from his past works, demanding a rewrite... that's the idea behind a fascinating new play co-written by American actor Nic D'Avirro. Sadly, due to Covid, Nic was never to see the debut of his creation. His widow, and the show's co-producer, Terry Diab tells us what happened and how you can see Unseen Shepard at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Unseen Shepard came into being initially as a glimmer of an idea by Nic D'Avirro, an American actor who had trained in London and lived there for two decades but was in Pasadena, California at the time of writing. Nic had never written anything before and he took the idea to his close friend Matt Braaten, an experienced actor, writer and teacher. And family man - as was Nic. Over many hours, ideas were shared and developed and a script took shape, mostly while sitting on Matt's patio - over the occasional glass or two of Scotch! Almost two years later the script was complete.
Nic had starred in a TV series made in Scotland decades before and the dream was to premiere Unseen Shepard at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In March of 2020 the venue was booked and all seemed set. But Covid intervened - and the whole festival was cancelled. So it was rebooked for the summer of 2021. But in January of that year, Nic developed a rare auto-immune disease and tragically died on January 12th, 2021.
Grief and shock took up most of the rest of that year but the two families vowed to follow Nic's dream and bring Unseen Shepard to the Fringe Festival this year. And here we are! The play opened on August 5th, we are attracting audiences and excellent audience response, and waiting for reviews.
Our families are here with us - Nic's son has written original music for the show and Matt's 8 year old daughter, Lily, is an integral part of our Team. Mary Ellen, Matt's wife, has been a committed stage manager and producer and I am also here as producer and general dogsbody, doing anything from handing out fliers to food shopping.
Our wonderful cast is Matt Foyer, Cameron Meyer and Matt Braaten. And our brilliant director is Martin Jago.
