VALDOSTA — Dr. Jimmy Bickerstaff shares a conversation with a colleague about the message of playwright Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Buried Child.” The colleague felt the play frames the dissolution of the American family. Asked his opinion on the play’s theme, Bickerstaff gave an unexpected answer, especially for the show’s director. He admitted, and still admits days prior to the play’s opening as Valdosta State University Theatre & Dance’s 2010-11 season opener, he isn’t certain of the show’s message. But that may be the point. “Mystery is certainly at the heart of ‘Buried Child,’” he writes in his Director’s Notes. “On the surface, the characters and their behavior may seem a bit bizarre, but dig down into the rich, rain-soaked, middle-American earth of the play, and you’ll find the secret fears, hopes, needs, and tragedies that motivate them. It’s what Shepard calls ‘emotional territory,’ an encounter with the mysteries of who we are and how we came to be that way.” As the VSU student cast loosens up with a series of exercises prior to rehearsal, Bickerstaff discusses how mysteries run like threads through “Buried Child.” Oldest son Tilden enters the home with a load of corn. The family asks where Tilden got the corn. He says, out back. Family patriarch Dodge comments that corn hasn’t grown out back in years. Shepard never explains the origins of the corn or other items Tilden brings home. Did Tilden steal them? Did someone leave them for Tilden to find? Are they gifts from some unnamed American gods? Would Perseus, or one of the other Greek heroes, have bothered explaining the divine origins of their gifts had they lived in late 20th century America? Shepard binds traditions of Greek myths within the tapestry of “Buried Child,” but he uses a fine needle. Dodge is no mythical king, but he has a brow as troubled as the bearer of any impotent crown and his family is as fractured as the cursed kingdom of a Greek tragedy. As Bickerstaff notes, Shepard believes mythology is intrinsically bound to the human experience. In 1991, Shepard said, “… Myth not only connects you and me to our personal families, it connects us to the family of generations and generations of races of people, tribes, the mythology of the ancient people.” Such mythology ties the “Buried Child” family to the past while Shepard’s colloquial drama and humor make these themes recognizable to the present. There is the dream of a dead son becoming a hero, not a slayer of giants, but a giant on a basketball court. There is the Oedipal uncertainty of paternity. The slipping away of the American Dream leaves this family in as much peril as a Greek god’s curse on a city-state. This American family must find its way through a labyrinth that does not offer any easy outs, or any bright rope to mark the path, and the audience can find their own answers or raise their own questions in the depths of these dark corners. As Bickerstaff notes, “… As the mystery deepens and the characters are revealed to themselves and to us, it is my hope that the emotional terrain will become more personal for each of us and more fruitful.”

THE CAST: Colby Hall, Elizabeth Powell, John Holladay, Isaac Huntington, Jessalin Smith, Tim Olivar, Clark Franzman. DIRECTION, RODUCTION: Dr. Jimmy Bickerstaff, director; R. Keith Pugh, technical director, set & light design; Kathy Raess-Young, costume design, costume shop supervisor; Deborah Morgan, production dramaturg; Abby Vincent, stage manager; Holly Dickerson, assistant stage manager; Rachel Icenogle, light board operator; Tess Buis, sound board operator; Michael Driggers, sound technician; Melanie Harkness& Rebecca McAleer, running crew; Keaira Grinnage, Kelsey Russo, & Patrice Trower, wardrobe crew; Elie Siegel, master electrician, assistant technical director; Ryan Ponsell, master carpenter; Brianna Correa & Patrice Trower, costume shop assistants; Joe Muncy, scene shop foreman; Ryan Ponsell & Elie Siegel, scene shop assistants; Emih Abrahamson, box office manager; Susanna Agnew, house manager.

SHOWTIME VSU Theatre & Dance presents Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child.” When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 16-18; 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19; 7:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, Sept. 20-22. Where: Lab Theatre, Valdosta State University Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood. Tickets: $12, adult; $10, senior adult; $8, child, nor VSU student; $7, group rate of 10 or more. Reservations, more information: Call (229) 333-5973 (once school returns); or visit www.valdosta.edu/comarts Run time: Approximately 2 hours, 20 minutes, including two 10-minute intermissions in this show in three acts.