On Mondays, over noon on Zoom, I converse with notable guests and subscribers of this Potluck column. Think of it as a virtual luncheon, without food, but with interesting people. Our participants are generally as interesting as our guest of honor and contribute mightily to the conversation. On Monday, August 28, our dining reviewer, Wini Moranville, will be our featured guest. We start at noon and end at 1 p.m. Join the call: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85434186927
Allison and Peggy Engel had a milestone birthday. It is the kind of dot on a lifeline when most people think about retiring and getting around to leisure activities that have long been postponed. Not these twin sisters; they vowed to kick it up a notch.
The long-time journalists and authors decided to write a play about columnist Molly. Ivans. The twins now live on opposite sides of the country, but their roots are in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. With zero experience in the genre, other than attending community theater classes as children, in 2010, they not only wrote the play Red, Hot, Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins, but landed Kathleen Turner to perform in the starring role (thanks to yet another Iowa connection, Jim Autry).
Please listen to the podcast. There are Iowa angles to their success, but most of all, it’s an informative discussion about the business side of playwrighting and bringing a story to the fascinating stage. Which is more lucrative, writing books or plays?
No more spoilers. Listen to Allison and Peggy Engel. It’s a rare opportunity to be a part of the conversation with such accomplished and successful writers. The Engels, in this act of their lives, are immortalizing women journalists such as Ivans and as of 2015, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End.
We caught them last week the day after their Bombeck play ran in the Cleveland Play House.
Enjoy the podcast. Send it to your friends. Hey, let’s get these plays performed in Iowa!
And for those of you coming to the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat, be sure to sign up for Allison’s workshops. Peggy will return next year, I hope, but a 50th-wedding anniversary trip conflicted with her appearance this year.
MORE: KATHLEEN TURNER, ARENA STAGE, CLIP FROM KOJO NNAMDI.
ERMA BOMBECK: AT WITS END. VIRGINIA REPERTORY THEATRE
A FUN FIND FROM THE 2012 ARCHIVES. GENEVA OVERHOLSER INTRODUCES THE ENGEL SISTERS FOR THE USC ANNENBERG JOURNALISM DIRECTOR’S FORUM. OVERHOLSER WAS THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR.
MONDAY ZOOM LUNCH CALL WITH WINI MORANVILLE, AUGUST 28, NOON TO 1 P.M. JOIN THE CONVERSATION USING THIS ZOOM LINK: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85434186927
Subscribe to Wini’s Food Stories: CLICKHer coverage of restaurants and food is expanding as others join her column with guest posts, including a most recent contribution from our own Fern and Joe, Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists, about dining out in Ames.
THE IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE
If you don’t already subscribe to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, check out the columns posted in today’s roundup. In case you haven’t noticed, the GOP presidential caucus parade is taking place in the state (and on our airwaves), and some of our commentators have something to say about it.
The eminent domain issue in Iowa is brought home in human detail by Cheryl Tevis.
And, for some reason, many of our writers had opinions about food this week, from growing to frosting and consuming it.
Jeff Morrison brings to light a controversy about an important piece of the Lincoln Highway in peril.
There are a few laughs and tears to be had in this week’s story by Mary Swander about buying her tombstone.
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup
Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters from Iowans, Iowa
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities
Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with Iowa Capital Dispatch.alls, Ohio, where they grew up reading the newspaper and have fond memories of their mother laughing uncontrollably over something Bombeck wrote.
