Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

Informationen zum Autor Nick Offerman Klappentext With wit, heartwarming stories and a keen insight into new and exciting ways to see both the past and the future of the country, the actor, writer and woodworker takes a literary journey to America's frontier to celebrate the people and landscape that have made it great. Leseprobe Introduction In many ways, the inception of this book occurred one score and ?ve years ago, when I was working on a production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child at Chicago’s excellent Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Back then, I had been well on my way to a comfortable life of blind materialism, hopefully emulating one of David Lee Roth’s insouciant, musical short ?lms I had newly come to adore on a brilliant new cable channel, simply called—get this: Music Television. Little did I suspect that by the time that play had closed, the trajectory of my life would be forever altered. Sam himself had come to town to do some rewriting and polishing on his script, even though it had won him a Pulitzer Prize back in 1979. I guess he didn’t entirely agree with the Pulitzer folks. That was certainly his prerogative, and I guess that’s what made him so damn handsome, I mean smart. The production was a pretty big deal, directed as it was by Steppenwolf founding member Gary Sinise, and starring some honest-to-god hotshots like Lois Smith, Ted Levine, Kellie Overbey, Ethan Hawke, and the late, great James Gammon. Gary, a legendary actor and director, also happens to be an awfully generous fellow, if you’re ever lucky enough to meet him—he always treated me quite equitably, even though the ?rst time we met I was unaware his name was pronounced “Suh-neese,” and I said, “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Sinus.” Despite that initial gaffe, Gary hired me as an understudy for the show and also as a makeup artist, to apply old-age makeup to James Gammon every night, just by way of some stippling and painted modeling with highlights and shadows, nothing fancy. I had a scenery shop in the warehouse where I lived, or I guess to be accurate I should say I had a futon and a hotplate in the warehouse where I cohabitated with my table saw and my pin nailers. I had also previously made some props for Steppenwolf, including some masks for Alex and his Droogs in A Clockwork Orange, a play in which I also appeared and served as ?ght captain. All of which is to say, I was lucky as hell to be the jack-of-all-trades gofer kid running around the theatre the night Sam Shepard corralled me, slipped me $40, and told me to go get him a bottle of Maker’s Mark. Now, I had gone to theatre school in Urbana-Champaign in the late eighties and early ’90s, which means that Sam Shepard was still the biggest rock star cowboy playwright in America (not to mention Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff—heart-eyes emoji) when he sent me to get him a very speci?c handle of Kentucky straight bourbon, which means that I was high as a kite as I sprinted a block each in three different directions to score the bottle before realizing there was no liquor store within sprinting distance. Son of a bitch! I had been gone at least seven minutes, and I was beginning to panic—if I could but successfully score him this whisky, there’s no reason that it might not speci?cally fuel some innovative rewrites in rehearsal that night that could make the Pulitzer committee realize they had better take things up a notch and award Buried Child a ?rst-ever second Pulitzer! Inspired, I ?nally streaked into the Argentinian restaurant on the corner and found a bartender to take pity on me. He fetched me the bottle, which I gingerly cradled as I cautiously high-stepped it back to the theatre. In hindsight, acquiring intoxicants for your playwright before rehearsal begins is probably not ever a good idea. That fact began to dawn on me that very night shortly after I had deposited the Maker’s Mark at Sam’s seat in the audience, just before his signi?ca...

Product details

• Authors: Nick Offerman
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 01.10.2022
• EAN: 9781101984703
• ISBN: 978-1-101-98470-3
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 210 mm x 18 mm
• Subject: Fiction > Comic, cartoon, humour, satire > Humour, satire, satirical comedy