About the Play:

Feedlot is a full-length drama by Patrick Meyers. In the control room of a feedlot where food is electronically dispensed to the cattle below, the night shift keeps watch on the many dials and gauges that operate the facility. Feedlot is an intense, gripping and emotionally charged play about violence and its impact on five men.

Feedlot is about five guys, a grain elevator, and cattle. The action is set in the mechanized control room of a modern feedlot, a sterile, computerized place which resembles the flight deck of a rocket ship. Four men, three swaggering cowboys and a sensitive young college student, are about to begin their night's vigil, tending the dials and gauges that regulate the flow of feed to the cattle pens below. One of the cowboys, a super-macho Vietnam veteran named Billy Fred, is convinced that Gene, the college boy, is a gay and, while the other men are off-stage, he taunts him unmercifully for being a "faggot". The tension between these two builds quickly toward the breaking point but, when it comes, it does so with an unexpected reversal as Gene, drawing a revolver, turns the tables on Billy Fred. Holding him at bay he ridicules the stupid cowboy, suggesting Billy Fred's overzealous masculinity is probably hiding his own sexual uncertainty. Billy Fred is strangely cowed by the accusations, as if Gene has hit on the truth, so when the others return and work continues there is an odd but unmistakable bond between the two men. Feedlot is a first play by an author of exceptional talent.

Feedlot premiered in 1977 at the Berkeley Stage Company in Berkeley, California and received its East Coast premiere with the celebrated Circle Repertory Company off-Broadway in New York City later that same year, where it enjoyed a fairly substantial run and some glowing notices.

Cast: 5 male

What people say:

"…Mr. Meyers is a man who believes that the stage is a combat area fenced in by electrified barb wire … the language of Feedlot is taut, plausible, menacing when it means to be, quickly and effortlessly funny." — New York Times

"…an extraordinary ability to involve his audience … a play of power, and a fine introduction to a talented new playwright…." — Star-Ledger

"…the play holds our interest and keeps growing in stature…." — New York Magazine

About the Playwright:

Patrick Meyers is an American playwright and screenwriter who was born in Phoenix, Arizona and grew up in Denver, Colorado. He attended Colorado State University at Fort Collins, where he began acting. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles and joined the Company Theatre. In 1972, he moved to Berkeley, California where he earned a degree in television production from Merritt College. He is best known as the author of Feedlot and K2.