AUTHORS
Jean Shepherd
About
SYRACUSE STAGE 2010-2011 SEASON STUDENT STUDY GUIDE
the
was born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, on July 26, 1921. He earned his amateur radio license when he was just 16. Shepherd’s career began in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he had a television program called Rear Bumper. In 1957, he was recommended to replace Steve Allen on NBC’s Tonight Show, but NBC executives were contractually obligated to offer the job to Jack Paar. However, Shepherd’s work in television continued, and in the early 1960s, Shepherd ran his own weekly television show on WOR in New York. Between 1971 and 1994, he wrote and produced numerous works for both television and cinema and was the writer and narrator of the show Jean Shepherd’s America. The show followed Shepherd as he told his famous narratives, visited unusual locales and interviewed local people of interest. He used a similar format for his next show, Shepherd’s Pie. Shepherd had a gift for relating to a wide audience, and it is believed that he performed entirely without scripts. In addition to his radio and television work, Shepherd also performed regularly at various local colleges and universities. Due to his popularity, these shows were sometimes broadcast live on the radio. Eight record albums of live and studio performances of “Shep”, the nickname Shepherd was known by, were released between 1955 and 1975.
The Film
Shepherd’s most famous work is the 1983 feature film A Christmas Story, which is now considered a holiday classic. A Christmas Story was based on collected short stories from Shepherd’s books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories. Several of the stories were ones Shepherd had shared with his radio audience including “Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid” and “Flick’s Tongue.” In the film, Shepherd provides the voice of the adult Ralph Parker. He also has a cameo role playing a man overseeing the line at the department store where people are waiting for Santa Claus. A Christmas Story, which has remained popular since its debut, is just one example of Shepherd’s ability to create some of the most nostalgic and truly American pieces of humorous storytelling. Shepherd’s simple and relatable style has often led to his being compared to Mark Twain. Shepherd died on October 16, 1999, just days after the contracts were signed, allowing his holiday classic to be adapted for the stage. Information Source: A Christmas Story Study Guide, The Cleveland Playhouse
P G
hilip recian
About THE
PLAYWRIGHT
began his show business career at the age of four as a ventriloquist and a magician. […] Other works include Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Dragon of Nitt, Lion and the Lyre (translated and performed in Russia), Little Pills (based on Moliere’s Imaginary Invalid), Toby Saves the Farm, and a translation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Mr. Grecian has also adapted many novels and films into plays for staged radio dramatization, including Dracula!, Frankenstein, Twisted Tales of Poe, The Blood Countess, and It’s a Wonderful Life. Other plays include his widely popular children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit and the official stage adaptation of the motion picture A Christmas Story, which is produced annually by a number of professional, educational and community theatre companies throughout the English-speaking world.
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