FOT Extra-Curricular Activities Bulletin Board

[Martin]

Really great article! Congratulations, JG!

[Pete Velcro]

Disco Fires

Do tell.

Disco Fries are an excellent choice, ughwhy.  In fact, I'm glad you didn't choose the salad; I don't even know if Manchester's make salads--I was appealing to the super health conscious FOT's out there.  But hey, who wants salad on a Friday, anyway? Nobody!

In all seriousness, with proof of FOT-dom (an ID card, a sticker, a convincing "Wait whaaat") you and your friends--bring everyone you can, your parents, the homeless etc.--will get comped, by me.  I would be so jazzed to meet real live FOT's and to also see that something I put on the internet actually became real.

So, if you get the feeling one of these Fridays between 5 and 8, please come out: Manchester's 920 2nd Ave. between 48th & 49th St. 

[folksnake]

but what he didn't tell you was that he was the subject of the lengthy feature in the Washington Post!

So cool to open up the paper on a Sunday morning and see a name and face I recognized! One that hadn't started a war or something.

Great article--congratulations...though I did look for Best Show references, I'll admit. Silly but true.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Dave, you are sweet.  But I need the FOT more than you all will ever need me.  Nothing gives me a sense of perspective like coming here and geeking out about music, comics, or cans of porn.

[Regular Joe]

but what he didn't tell you was that he was the subject of the lengthy feature in the Washington Post!

So cool to open up the paper on a Sunday morning and see a name and face I recognized! One that hadn't started a war or something.

Great article--congratulations...though I did look for Best Show references, I'll admit. Silly but true.

I agree with all that, so I'll just add that the article really makes me want to see one of your plays! Maria/Stewart sound so much cooler than any theater I've ever seen here, let alone been involved in.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Thanks, guys.  RegJoe, you're in Seattle, right?  There used to be great theater there but around 2001/2002, almost everyone under 35 from that scene left for New York or LA, mostly because the economy collapsed (in fact do you know any of them?  Printer's Devil or Empty Space guys, or Mike Daisey?).  The bigger theaters out there have been in crisis ever since.  One of them (ACT) kinda dicked me over.

It's a lot hard to sneak in Best Show references when there are actual journalists and editors involved.  Though, shit, I just did a website interview and I forgot to sneak one in.  Next time.

[Regular Joe]

I've seen some amazing theater come out of Empty Space and ACT both, although ACT's reputation around here isn't worth a whole hell of a lot anymore. From your brief mention of them, it appears there is good reason for that. Losing Empty Space however has left something of a void here, that thankfully a number of eager young troupes seem to be filling in fairly well, on a smaller scale.

The great bane of this area (or anywhere that isn't LA or NY I imagine) is that everyone who gets the briefest glimpse of their own talent immediately moves to one of the hub cities (as is my want), leaving us with a constant crop of up and comers, when the fields are fruitful. Also, to be clear, I don't mean to say I am anywhere near in your league of professional theater, having only been involved in a number of smaller productions around here (acting, for the large part). Life has taken me out of doing it from time to time (aka now), but I always go back.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I still bet we know at least a few people in common - it's a laughably small world (I actually have friends in common with Forrest and Junk, and I'm doing a thing at Totep's school this fall).  Also the boundaries between different leagues or whatever are pretty porous.

There is definitely a problem with the hub city thing.  Most big regional plays have to get cast out of NYC.  But it's kind of unpredictable - for example, 5 of the 6 actors in my cast are local DC people, and they're better than most NYC casts I've worked with.  DC and Chicago have huge local pools of working actors, while LA is mostly a film town - there's lots of theater there, but mostly due to sprawl (and the fact that actors in plays are mostly just trying to keep busy in between film and TV projects), it doesn't quite coalesce in the way that other cities do.  Arty, young cities like Austin and Portland have thriving scenes and lots of small, awesome companies, but most everyone has to have a day job because there's just not enough paying work.  Cities like SF and Boston that should have tons of local theater have relatively little going on.

The Empty Space thing is a bummer but the silver lining is that their former literary manager wound up in NY, and he's awesome.  I'm getting to work with him on a project next month.

Sorry to yammer on about all of this stuff.

[Regular Joe]

I still bet we know at least a few people in common - it's a laughably small world (I actually have friends in common with Forrest and Junk, and I'm doing a thing at Totep's school this fall).  Also the boundaries between different leagues or whatever are pretty porous.

Even if we don't have common people and even if we haven't spoken enough to make the statement true, you can bet your bottom dollar I will name-drop you as my close, personal friend, to anyone who may know enough to know. I will also mention what a bigshot you are, as in "Yeah, I'm totally close, personal friends with the playwright Jason Grote, who (I mention offhandedly) was featured in last weeks Washington Post."

I will privately refer to this as the FOTclause, being that I am a Friend of Tom, as are all these other awesomely creative people. Therefore, you are all now people I can (and will) coopt as friends, simply to further my own strictly careerist agenda. Yes, I'm looking at you, H-Man.*

*I probably wont do any of this, because I feel like a douche even just joking about it now. Also, I don't know that many people anymore who would have the first idea what I was on about.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Yeah, any Friend of Tom is a friend of mine and is welcome to drop my name in the 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of situations that it might do any of you any good.

[dave from knoxville]

I am going to ask the theater teacher I work with if he knows my FRIEND Jason Grote. If he replies with a no, I will slap him across the face with my gloves, shout "POSEUR!!! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!!", and demand his immediate ouster from the ranks of academia.

Plus, Jason Grote knows his way around numbers. Damn Renaissanace man's showing me up. I can't even type, much less write plays.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Well, I know how to leave my finger on the "zero" key until it looks moderately funny.  Unless you're saying that the math is accurate regarding my ability to help people, in which case, I bow to your sophisticated and elegant zing.

I am pretty positive that your teacher friend wouldn't know me, though that might also be a zing.  The way these things work, things would have to be headed in this direction for another 20 years or so - then I'll be known as a "young" playwright by the time I'm pushing 60.

I feel like I'm taking over this thread with boring real-life stuff, someone post what they're doing, quick!

[dave from knoxville]

I am trying to convince myself that I am not totally inadequate and that my accomplishments add up to more that squat.

Also I am listening to Erin McKeown, but that's supposed to go on another thread I think.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Dave, you are awesome and funny and a Powercaller!  I wish I had an ounce of your trenchant wit when calling Tom - instead I'm reduced to talking about superheroes.

Also, anything I've done seems much less impressive when you consider that I've been at it singularly, with no back-up plan, since 1993.  That's almost 25 years!

And, EDIT: write that novel, Dave!  Write that novel!  What one man can do, another can do!

[Bryan]

Buck up, Dave. You seem like a kind, thoughtful and funny guy, and your calls are always a highlight of the Best Show.

You need to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" again.