The former U of O President indirectly influenced me when he was Oregon Atty Gen in the 1980s.
My play Christmas At The Juniper Tavern was widely assumed to be a satire about the Rajneesh in Oregon. In fact, it was an expansion of my one act The Death of Teng Yen-feng, written long before the ashram in Oregon. But no one believed me.
We had a mole in rehearsal! A week before opening, a Rajneesh attorney wrote the theater with plans to sue if we opened - and had specific quotations from script to make their case of defamation. How in hell did they get a script? The ploy was ridiculous - but almost worked. An actress single mother on food stamps got scared and was ready to quit, crashing the play. But Frohnmayer came to the rescue, offering to rep everyone free if it went forward. The Oregon Atty Gen took a stand!
We opened and no suit. A mega hit that went to public TV - and no suit.
Frohnmayer probably saved the play, the biggest hit of my career at the time.
My play Christmas At The Juniper Tavern was widely assumed to be a satire about the Rajneesh in Oregon. In fact, it was an expansion of my one act The Death of Teng Yen-feng, written long before the ashram in Oregon. But no one believed me.
We had a mole in rehearsal! A week before opening, a Rajneesh attorney wrote the theater with plans to sue if we opened - and had specific quotations from script to make their case of defamation. How in hell did they get a script? The ploy was ridiculous - but almost worked. An actress single mother on food stamps got scared and was ready to quit, crashing the play. But Frohnmayer came to the rescue, offering to rep everyone free if it went forward. The Oregon Atty Gen took a stand!
We opened and no suit. A mega hit that went to public TV - and no suit.
Frohnmayer probably saved the play, the biggest hit of my career at the time.
