Act Five

Act Five

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Gary Cole

A Republican activist and true believer for decades, Gary Cole was forced to reevaluate his most fundamental beliefs after his Presidential appointment to lead the grant side of the NEA was withdrawn. He learned that the withdrawal was prompted by controversy surrounding his production of two plays: Straight and Poona the F****dog. In his memoir, Artless: The Odyssey of a Cultural Creative (Ooligan Press, 2006), Cole recounts the journey from his formative years in Berkeley, California, campaigning for George H.W. Bush…to his days as an attorney at the CIA during the height of the Iran-Contra affairs…to his passion for theater as both actor and producer. Besides being finance chair of George W. Bush’s Oregon campaign in 2000, Gary Cole cofounded two theater companies in Portland: CoHo Productions and StageDirect. Gary was born and raised in Chicago’s suburbs and educated at Stanford. (Biography courtesy of Ooligan Press.)

Originally broadcast August 13, 2006, on Hello Beautiful!