First of all, tharain's applauding people icon above this is making me zone out like that woman in the Andromeda Strain. I think I began to write this post an hour ago, but I've been staring at all the little clapping people. Stop that!

Did I ever tell you about the white woman who "claimed" to be a black woman because she wrote a play with a black lead character? I forget her name, but she was speaking to the Northwest Playwrights Association meeting one afternoon. She told the story of how she couldn't get this play produced because people knew she was white, and the character was black... so she made up a "black" name and sent it out to theatres. Apparently one theatre agreed to produce it, and she had the sitcomish scenario in front of her. I can't recall how she handled it, but she basically owned up and the company agreed to produce it anyway since they had agreed to when they thought she was black.

Okay, we as an audience could deal with that. But then, for the rest of the little discussion she kept referring to herself "as a black playwright," as in, "As a black playwright, I think that..."

We were all quite astonished by this, but for the most part, amused. It was too surreal to be believed.

Okay, I've got to go back to staring at the clapping people. Happy, clapping people. Happy, clapping people.