Prodigal Son is copyright © 2016 by John Patrick Shanley

      Prodigal Son is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc.,

      520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156

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      Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty. All rights, including but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of this book by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the author’s representative: George Lane, Creative Artists Agency, 405 Lexington Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10174, (212) 277-9000.

      The publication of Prodigal Son by John Patrick Shanley, through TCG’s Book Program, is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

      TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.

      Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

      ISBN 978-1-55936-852-0 (ebook)

      Book design and composition by Lisa Govan

      Cover design by John Gall

      Cover photo by Imelda Kahuni/EyeEm

      Author photo by Monique Carboni

      First Edition, March 2016

      Contents

Preface

Production History

Characters

Scene 1

      Scene 2

      Scene 3

      Scene 4

      Scene 5

      Scene 6

      Scene 7

      Scene 8

      Scene 9

      Scene 10

       PREFACE

      In 1965 I arrived, a very troubled youth, at a private school in New Hampshire called Thomas More Preparatory School. Fifty-five boys were sequestered on a five-hundred-acre reservation on a mountaintop, for the purpose of education. I was from the Bronx, rather violent, a bit delusional, hungry for all kinds of things, and wild-eyed as a rescue dog. The teachers were all male save one, the headmaster’s wife, Louise Schmitt, and she taught one other boy and me in her home. Our subject was The Waste Land, and we studied it through a long winter and into the spring. I felt I didn’t understand the poem, and I didn’t care. I had seen a picture of T. S. Eliot, and I didn’t like the look of him. He wasn’t for me because I didn’t want to be him. That was how I judged poets then.

      This play is my account of that time, the period during which my whole life was being decided. It is a true story for the most part. The changes I’ve made have been to simplify or make a point.

      Most of the names remain unchanged, or only slightly altered. I wish you could have been there. I wish more generally that you could have shared my whole life with me, so we could discuss and compare. These plays I write are the best I can do to make that possible.

       —JPS