A comedy-drama about the Baxter family who run the Long B, a 5,000-acre cattle ranch in the West. The characters have the untamed individuality of the big open land they love. When a born-again bureaucrat from the Department of Defense arrives with an offer of ten million to buy them out for a secret military installation, the family is thrown into turmoil.

American Beef was commissioned by SouthCoast Rep, and audiences on both coasts have embraced its high-spirited exuberance. It is the playwright’s tribute to her Western roots.

B.J. Baxter, 60s
Minna, 60s, his wife
Bo Joe Baxter, early 30s
Ceil, 30, Bo Joe’s wife
Pony Baxter, 30s, left the ranch to live in New York
Abigail Baxter, 12, the granddaughter
Sam Greene, 29, the government agent

“...A deeply affecting portrait of a changing America [in which the roaring eighties of convenience and ease bulldoze all other concerns, at an incalculable price]...” — Variety August 11, 1987