VOL. 22 NO. 18
T
ony McGrath, of Martha’s Vineyard, Palm Springs, and New York City, was a pioneer in producing theater on the streets of New York City, has died in his New York City home at the age of 90. He believed in the theory that he and all people should live until 140. He based this theory on the premise that living creatures should live to seven times their age of maturity. People mature at 20, therefore they should live to 140. A graduate of Balboa High School in San Francisco, he went to St. Mary’s College of California with a basketball and football scholarship. McGrath lived in the Highlands section of Oak Bluffs since 1964, and was a member of Motley Crew’s “The Brain Trust” at Mocha Mott’s since 2001. He produced the Frederick Douglass speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” on the beach in Oak Bluffs for the past 15 years, as well as lectures, plays, and children’s theater on the Island. Harlem Renaissance writer and longtime Vineyard resident Dorothy West immortalized him in her novel “The Wedding,” which was about an interracial marriage. She based the characters on McGrath and his wife of 50 years, Abigail McGrath, her niece. The Academy awardwinning actor F. Murray Abraham said, “My work with Off Center Theatre keeps me in touch with honesty.” McGrath was a veteran of the Broadway stage. He created the part of Big Eddie
Tony McGrath
Stover in Truman Capote’s original 1952 production of “The Grass Harp,” directed by Robert Lewis. He also created the part of “the Stranger” in the original 1955 production of “The Cherry Orchard” directed by David Ross, and was in the acclaimed Joel Friedman production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. Friedman also directed McGrath in “The Odd Couple.” He specialized in “bum” parts, and was featured in the film “Better Than Ever” opposite Bill Hickey, “The Luckiest Man in the World” by Frank Gilroy, and “Au Pair Chocolat,” directed by his son, Benson McGrath. He was featured in many early television shows, such as “Route 66,” “77 Sunset
LEGAL NOTICES ➔➔ Continued from page 13 on February 12, 2015. Thereafter said mortgage was assigned to REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING, LLC by assignment of mortgage bearing date April 14, 2017 and recorded under CRFN 2017000150830 in the City Register of the City of New York, County of Kings on April 19, 2017. That the mortgaged premises affected by said foreclosure action are situate in the County of Kings, State of New York and more specifically described in “Schedule A” annexed hereto and made a part hereof. Said premises being known as and by 1 FAIRVIEW PLACE, BROOKLYN, NY 11226. Date: April 5, 2018 Batavia, New York Megan Suttell, Esq. ROSICKI, ROSICKI & ASSOCIATES, P.C. Attorneys for Plaintiff Batavia Office 26 Harvester Avenue Batavia, NY 14020 585.815.0288 Help For Homeowners In Foreclosure New York State Law requires that we send you this notice about the foreclosure process. Please read it carefully. Mortgage foreclosure is a complex process. Some people may approach you about “saving” your home. You should be extremely careful about any such promises. The State encourages you to become informed about your options in foreclosure. There are government agencies, legal aid entities and other non-profit organizations that you may contact for information about foreclosure while you are working with your lender during this process. To locate an entity near you, you may call the toll-free helpline maintained by the New York State Banking Department at 1-877-BANKNYS (1-877-226-5697) or visit the Department’s website at www. banking.state.ny.us. The State does not guarantee the advice of these agencies.
15
OUR TIME PRESS May 3 – 9, 2018
■■
J
Strip,” and “Death Valley Days.” In 1968, he created Off Center Theatre to give new playwrights a platform and to promote out-of-the-box concepts within a proscenium setting. He produced performances inspired by his street theater experiences in the Bread and Puppet Theatre, through 2017. His first theater was in the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church on 66th Street. Lincoln Center was doing the excavation for its performing space at the time. When people would ask where his theater was located, he would say “Off Lincoln Center,” hence the name Off Center, which was doubly fitting given the type of political and social plays associated with it. Playwrights such as Trevor Griffen, Barry Keefe, Neall Bell, Norman Wexler, and Tom Labar all had their works performed there. Christine Baranski, Peter Boyle, Dominic Chianese, Ron McLarty, and a host of others, including F. Murray Abraham, performed there. Off Center also produced plays for children. It was located near a low-income housing project, and it was clear that the children could not afford a ticket. As a result, the children’s plays were performed on the streets, for free. “Theater is a right, not a privilege,” said McGrath. These were “zany and irreverent versions of children’s classics”; the actor John Leguizamo got his start as Jack in “Jack in the Beanstalk,” S. Epatha Merkerson was the third pig in “Three Little Pigs,” and F. Murray
Abraham, who was quite well-known when he joined, was the prince in Cinderella. The children’s theater company used fairy tales to emphasize women’s rights, diversity, and social issues in a way that was an alternative to Disney. Under McGrath’s direction, “Biting the Apple,” street theater done in comic book style, about the worm of apathy in the Big Apple, toured the city streets, and “Hope for Life” performed a different episode every week outdoors at lunchtime for those working people who missed their soap opera. It asked the question, Can a girl from a small Latin-American island find happiness as a secretary on Wall Street? He is survived by Abigail McGrath, his wife of 50 years, Benson McGrath, his son, and Jason Rosen, his stepson. A memorial will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Off Center Theatre, 484 West 43rd St., No. 37E, New York, NY 10036, or electronically by PayPal: http://bit.ly/ McGrathdonation.
Things Are More Thorny than Rosie for Joy Ann Reid
by Maitefa Angaza
oy Ann Reid has been hailed as a brilliant and much-needed resource for those seeking a breath of honest fresh air in TV journalism. Her MSNBC weekend show AM JOY incisively tackles pressing political issues of the day with an impressive array of Black pundits along for the ride. Right now, though, Reid is fighting for her TV life, in a scandal of her own making that Olivia Pope might have a hard time spinning. It’s reported that some years ago, posting on her blog “The Reid Report,” Reid cheered on Donald Trump’s fat shaming of Rosie O’Donnell: “How much longer till that chubbedout shrew Rosie O’Donnell gets her fat ass canned by Babwa [Barbara Walters]? ... How much more kick-ass funny can Donald Trump be?” she wrote. O’Donnell, taken aback, wanted to accept Reid’s explanation that her old website had been hacked and that she had no recollection of making such out-of-character remarks. But then, last Saturday, O’Donnell posted the following: “heard from joy reid - apparently i was rude to her at an event in 1996 - when she was an intern and i was receiving an award i have no memory of the event- i apologized so did she - all is well.” So… Reid did, in fact, remember writing the blog post, but not other things that were attributed to her. Those were surely the work of a hacker. What other things? The website Mediaite says it accessed Reid’s defunct 2007-2009 blog though an online archiving service after someone posting as Not a bot @Jamie_Moz discovered close to 50 posts on Twitter commenting on the looks, lives and sex lives
of people assumed to be gay or lesbian. Absurd “jokes” range from speculation about the private lives of powerful political figures, to hairstyles, to a supposed threat that gay men pose to “post-pubescent” youth. Fun was made of Harriet Miers, George W. Bush’s nominee for Supreme Court: “… no, the really important question is whether this chick is a lesbian… Let’s face it, that’s one hellified lesbian hair-do she’s sporting.” And another post mocks LGBTQI people who were offended that evangelical Pastor Rick Warren had been invited to speak at President Obama’s inauguration. “If you were to ban everyone who opposes gay marriage from the Inaugural there would be no one but Barney Frank and the aforementioned Mr. Kucinich on the National Mall,” the post states. “Even Obama wouldn’t be able to show up… How is it that queers became the odd ones out at such a momentous turning point in history? By pushing an agenda of stupid issues like gay marriage.” As the posts made public multiplied in number, Reid and her attorney added more steps to the baffling dance. While not backing down from the claim of being hacked, Reid apologized to all she may have offended. Characterizing her decade-old comments as, “insensitive, tone deaf and dumb.” “Re-reading those old blog posts, I am disappointed in myself. I apologize to those who also are disappointed in me. Life can be humbling. It often is. But I hope that you know where my heart is, and that I will always strive to use my words for good. I know better and I will do better,” Reid wrote. The FBI is supposedly probing whether
Reid’s blog was, in fact, hacked, though a hacker would have had to gain access to Reid’s blog before January 14th, 2007 at 06:52 a.m., which is when the Library of Congress began archiving “The Reid Report.” Reid’s attorney Jonathan Nichols, claimed to have, “both evidence of fraudulent posts and evidence of screenshot manipulation.” But that was before Mediaite. The next day, he said, “I’ve become aware of some methodology issues,” and said, “We are looking to resolve the discrepancy.” Joy Reid went on the air with a videotaped apology that was long, thorough and sounded sincere. Then a story on Newsweek’s website last week directed readers to the site of The Washington Free Beacon, which had discovered still more posts, including one anti-Islamic in tone the Reid had reposted from a Mark in Mexico: “My feeling is that the only reason that a world war between civilizations has not already broken out is that the vast majority of Muslims living in the world today are so desperately poor that they have the time, energy and resources for only the occasional burst of AK-47 fire into the air from the garbage and sewage laden streets outside of their mud huts. them resources and I fear that they will come after us everywhere that they can find us, which is to say everywhere.” MSNBC is standing by Reid for now, though some have called for the station to investigate or fire its host. Fellow anchor Rachel Maddow came to Reid’s defense, saying that her voice is far too important to be lost. The result was that Maddow was attacked on Twitter as being a “hypocritical,” lesbian who condones disparaging remarks against other lesbians. What a mess.