|
|
is the chairman of
the Gridiron Trust and the show's chief author. He has been active as a writer and
performer in the Gridiron for more than a quarter of a century. Now partially retired, Tom
held management positions in public affairs at the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce
national headquarters and at Cities Services Company. From 1983 to 1996, he was public
relations/marketing director for Tulsa Regional Medical Center. Also a Gridiron
enthusiast, his wife, Charlotte spearheaded for several years the food preparation for the
Friday night cast/Oklahoma city party. (If you'd like to stress out Tom, keep
clicking on his inbox tray. If you don't see the animation at left, go to http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave and
follow the instructions to install it in your web browser's plug-in folder.) |
| David Averill
* (cast, author, Gridiron Trust) |
Award - winning
longtime journalist, increasingly hearing - impaired middle - age man with a flair for
youthful style seeks long - term relationship with Gridiron audiences. He is Associate
Editor and Sunday Opinion Page columnist for The
Tulsa World. He has been a member of the liberal media for more than thirty years and
a member of the Gridiron for nearly twenty. |
| Bill Babb
(cast) |
After an absence
of 12 years, Bill Babb has, like the proverbial bad penny, returned to join the August
assemblage known as the Gridiron. After flirting with sanity for more than a decade, he
gave in to the urgings of friends and was accepted to the cast on a slim one vote margin.
Formerly in PR for the US Junior Chamber of Commerce, he spent several years in management
in the cellular industry before returning to Tulsa. He is currently manager of the
QuikTrip located on 11th Street near TU. As such, he is the Gridiron cast's resident
expert in Koolees, "Hi, how ya doing" and "Hurry back now." He is also
able to smile on cue. |
| Lois Bastien
(head prompter) |
Her questions for
the cast include:
- How can you blow your lines Friday and Saturday and yet
recite them perfectly 5 years later after 8 beers?
- How can you be late for every rehearsal but show up early
for cast parties?
- How is it possible to be so sharp at spotting typos and
so flat singing them?
Lois loves coming to rehearsals to add to her repertoire
of ways to ignore the director.
|
Vic Bastien
(director)
|
As director and Sacrificial Goat of the Gridiron for 5
years, Vic is in charge of
- leading (following)
- bitching (whining)
- demanding (pleading)
- ordering (imploring)
- instructing (begging)
- controlling (crying)
- inspiration (humiliation)
- challenging (groveling)
- teaching (beseeching)
- and setting a good example for the cast (fetal position
on the corner, sucking thumb and sobbing uncontrollably).
|
| Betty Boyd*
(cast, author, Gridiron Trust) 
|
is called many things -
"Honorable" (?) as a state legislator; "Queen" - Tulsa Centennial
style and "Tail Hooker" (don't ask). After having voted a resounding
"no" to having women cast members, Betty Boyd as certainly enjoyed being part of
the show since she was overruled! However, as she reports, "the audience is certainly
missing a good cheerleader to lead the applause." The only part of the Gridiron she
does not enjoy is the line "We've had our fill of bigshot bosses - we're sick of
politicians, too" which is sung during every opening and closing. Oh well! |
Jeff Buckley (cast) |
is in his third year of playing
Bill Clinton in the Gridiron. You may have seen Jeff's television debut this pas year on
"hard Copy" where he was arrested for stalking Monica Lewinsky. Police
found him with his trademark gray wig, a box of cigars and a sticky copy of Lewinsky's
"Vanity Fair" photo spread. To this day, Jeff maintains that he was merely doing
research for his role. |
| John Chronister (cast) |
 is an attorney and retired from
the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1994. He has not been gainfully employed since. He never
was a professional golfer prior to retirement but his principal duties at present are
mainly the drowning of golf balls as a member of the retired men's golf association which
has two rules of membership:
- Members must be a senior citizen
- 50% of the members must be capable of playing at least 9 holes without a potty break.
John first joined the Gridiron cast in 1988 and still sings a song or so each year
despite no vocal resemblance to Pavoratti. These renditions are usually short, even if not
sweet.
|
| Kathleen Coan (cast) |
is currently engaged in the lead role in the long
running hit "Tulsa Area United Way." She comes from a long line of Norwegian
thespians (you know you have to do something when you have 24 hours of darkness right
after night!) On a personal note, the poor thing is still single but in amazingly good
spirits in spite of this chase state. She spends most of her time chasing her poodle along
Riverside Drive. Now after a five year absence, this veteran of many gridiron shows dating
way back to the "first time women allowed" show...is delighted to be back with
her old .. really old.. Press Club cohorts! |
| Paul Davidson (cast) |
 plays the mandolin
slightly off key because he doesn't want to be considered to be a serious musician but he
gets just as much attention and he doesn't have to practice. His philosophy is "too
much seriousness is the downfall of the human race. Serious people would never be in a
gridiron show." He tried being serious twice and both times it ended in divorce. |
| Virginia Dessauer (cast) |
married longtime Gridiron Phil Dessauer in 1988
and moved from Fort Worth to Tulsa. She's been trying to sneak on stage for 11 years. |
| Max Fisher (cast,
Gridiron Trust) |
| is President and owner of Even Services, Inc. He has performed professionally in a
comedy duo, The Maniacs, in Tulsa and throughout the Southwest in gin mills and strip
joints. |
 |
| He produced and directed the Miss Oklahoma pageant for 25 years (without
any sexual harassment suits that we know of) and has appeared in some 36 Gridiron
productions. Only his face has been changed to protect the audience. |
|
| Gerry Goins (cast) |
returns to her native town from her successful
world - wide tour as "Maggie" in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." She
dedicates her Gridiron performance to Jacob and Lindsey, her biggest fans. "Love to
all the Single Men! No, really I mean it ... call me any time. |
| Sonny Gray (musical
director) |
 has been a musician in
Tulsa since before you were born. He loves working with the cast and crew of the Gridiron.
(Vic told me it would be if I said that.) He currently teaches jazz at Central High School
where he learned to hate marching band drummers who try to play jazz. |
| Melani Hamilton (author) |
does PR for the Tulsa
Performing Arts Center and has held a host of other jobs prior to taking that one on
earlier this year. She is president of Women in
Communications and is usually on stage portraying a valley girl and pretending she
can't sing. |
| Gordon Hart (cast) |
has knocked around the media business for nearly
40 years, but has knocked politicians in the Gridiron Show for only the past four years.
He's currently with Hartman
Communications, Inc. and husband of the infamous Mary Hart, father of three,
grandfather of nine...another good reason for hanging out with the Press Club Gridironers. |
| Robert J. Hawkins
(cast) |
After more than 30 years in the
Gridiron cast, he is the only member who has not improved or developed any acting skills .
Never could sing and still can't. However, what an example of perseverance. A cast member
of lesser determination would have dropped out. He is the owner of Hawkins Travel Service
where he's finally discovered something at which he excels.
|
| Karen Keith (interlocutor) |
 |
|
resumes her role as the Gridiron interlocutor.
Keith takes on this role because it is the only character in the Gridiron that doesn't
require putting any lines to memory. Years of working with a teleprompter have left Keith
unable to memorize even the shortest of lines. There will be a frightening twist to this
year's show as Keith will sing solo as she laments her ratings and leap to stardom. |
| Jarrod Kopp (cast,
author) |
| This is Jarod's first year as a Gridiron author. Although his work is easily
recognizable by its witting wordplay and acerbic wit, his two favorite sketches,
"There's Something About Mary Fallin" and "The Hansons Meet Michael
Jackson" were inexplicably cut from the show. |
 |
For the third year as a performer, Jarrod has once again refused to learn his lines
and threatened to slit Vic Bastien's throat for giving him direction. |
|
| Mary
Lou Martin (cast) |
was a college professor for 15 years, owned
dancing and modeling schools and now owns the  Newcomer Welcome
Service of Tulsa. In her past she hosted a 30 minute television talk show in Amarillo and
spent two weeks dancing with the Barnum and Bailey Circus in Houston. She won't tell us
which act she followed, but judging by her skill at "stepping over" this script,
we'd say it was the trained elephants. |
| Maria Michael
(crew) |
Madcap Maria was kidnapped by gypsies as a child.
Her disarming "devil may care" free spirit quickly made her a regular down at
the local fop. But, one day Maria was befriended by a kindly nun who had mistaken her for
a bag lady and set her on the path of the straight and narrow. Madcap Maria now works as
an undercover cop fighting crime and injustice wherever she goes. |
| Ernie Minson
(cast, author, crew) |
is a semi - retired commercial artist (meaning he
gave up his semi - driving job following the highway incident with Dennis Weaver). He
designed the earlier popular Tulsa Press Club logo and wants it known he had nothing to do
with the new design (though he - and others - wishes he had). He was Gridiron Rookie of
the Year in 1977 and is popular with the cast for his artistic personalizations of their
scriptbooks. (Hey, Vic, maybe that's why the cast holds onto them so long?!) |
| Tim Moore
(crew) |
| is employed as Property Manager at the Tulsa Housing Authority. He is the
son of longtime Gridironers Jack and Eva Moore. Tim, 38, has literally grown up in the
show as he has been involved with the Gridiron for the last 26 years doing anything from
making props to his current role as Production Manager. |
| In his spare time, you can find Tim cheering on his alma mater, OSU. You
can also catch him officiating basketball and softball games in the Tulsa area (be nice to
him, he's known for his quick technicals). If he has any other spare time, Tim sits around
really trying to figure out a very important national problem: Why are hot dogs sold in
packages of 10 and hot dog buns in packages of 8? |
|
|
| Ann Moore
(crew) |
is employed as a special education teacher at
Wagoner Middle School and a college student at NSU in Tahlequah. She is the wife of
Gridiron Production Manager Tim Moore. Ann has been working on the Gridiron stage crew and
building props for the past four years after marrying Tim in 1995. Ann enjoys taking care
of their three cats, bird watching, flower gardening, spending time with their families
and surfing the Internet. Ann also enjoys spending time at her favorite hangout, WalMart,
much to Tim's dismay. Ann is always on the lookout for new ways to feed the many creatures
that venture into their back yard and having Tim build yet another flower box. |
| P. Casey Morgan*
(prolific author, chief editor, Gridiron Board, head handholder for the emotionally
distressed cast members) |
produces the
StudioTulsa show for KWGS, Northeastern Oklahoma's public
radio affiliate and is currently writing a mystery novel.  She takes great pride in meticulously crafting
her Gridiron skits and songs, until each word is perfect, a gem, kissed by the gods. In
her spare time, she contemplates various grisly murder methods for cast members who
blithely ad-lib and/or mumble their way through her material.
|
| D. J. Morrow
(cast, Gridiron Board, program editor) |
is celebrating her fifth year in the show, sings
in the shower and on the Gridiron Stage or anywhere else she can find an audience. She
owes her upcoming marriage to the Gridiron Gods as it was this event that served as she
and her future hubby's first date in 1995. D. J. is a "closet lawyer" (which
some of the authors may need after this show) and is fast becoming a computer nerdette.
Her favorite pastime in the Gridiron is testing the patience of director Vic Bastien by
waiting until the absolute last moment to learn her lines.
|
| Henry Primeaux
(cast) |
was educated in the theatre at the Julie - Yard
Thespian and Horticulture School, Bronx, N.Y. (Run by "Big Julie Pomadoro.) His main
acting credit was the only speaking role in Tulsa Ballet Theatre history. His hobbies
include collecting string, Marcel Marceau records and close quarter ax fighting. |
| Heather Richetto-Rumley
(cast) |
 is in her second year doing the Gridiron. She was a "co-rookie of the
year" last year and didn't realize that part of the "perks" of her new
status required she give another year of unpaid, unfocused and unappreciated talent to the
Tulsa Press Club. Her only solace is being upgraded from "Bimbo" (last year's
role) to "Monica Lewinsky" this year. A role she can really sink her teeth into.
She thanks her husband (yep, sorry guys...) for use of his high school knee pads. |
| Dean Risk
(cast, Gridiron Board and Treasurer) |
is in his 21st
consecutive Gridiron, as a performer, sometime author and trustee. He is treasurer of the
Tulsa Press Club Educational and Charitable Trust and chairs its scholarship committee. He
has played Jim Inhofe in the show many times over the years, as mayor, congressman and
senator, and returns once again to that role. Dick wants to be a lawyer when he grows up. |
| Jim Roberts
(cast, Gridiron Trust) |
is fresh from a
commanding performance as Mr. Blandings in "Dream House." Jim was voted Thespian
of the Year at Washington Junior High. His long Theatrical career began with the Ottwumwa
YMCA minstrel show in 1948, where his show - stopping line was, "Man may learn to fly
like a bird, but he hasn't yet learned to sit on a barbed - wire fence." He resumed
his career after a long absence in Gridiron '96, but he's not quitting his day job in
marketing at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma
(an advertiser!). |
| Mary Sandlin
(cast) |
works at Alliance
Interoffice, but tells people she plays the piano in a whorehouse. A huge fan of animal
experimentation, Mary runs a gerbil farm in her spare time. |
| John Shaffer
(cast) |
is a second - year
participant in the Gridiron. Shaffer, also known as  County Jail
Prisoner Number 121656, has yet to be in the Gridiron longer that he has
been locked up. His prison warden of nearly 23 years, Aleta, has the keys to the balls and
chains around his ankles. John's children, Jonathan and Kathryn, are the results of his
only two conjugal visits ever. In addition, his two grandchildren are being raised in a
religious community to protect them from "the sins of their father's father
descending on their heads." John's current half-way house rehabilitation program is
being served at the Greater Tulsa Reporter Newspapers (an
advertiser!). |
| David Sims
(cast) |
was born a poor
albino Islamic Icelandic child. He soon realized there were three things missing in his
life - Gridiron, BBQ and Festivals. Joining the merchant marine at the ripe age of six, he
finally worked his way up to the port of Catoosa to the land of his dreams, Tulsa. After
paying his way through school as a highly sought - after male escort/stripper, he joined
the family business in a related field, PR. He has dreams of drinking Europe, snorting
Peru and "Francis the Mule." |
| Vivian Steele
(cast) |
On the road
with Pearl Jam, Vivacious Viv, who had a somewhat lackluster career in the '70s, attempted
a comeback only to be overwhelmed by throngs of insensitive body surfers. Undergoing
months of intensive therapy for an inferiority complex, Vivacious Viv recently went back
to school, graduating with honors from the Broken Arrow Beauty College with dreams of
someday opening up her own shop and helping others in crisis. |
| Kelly Thayer
(cast, Gridiron Trust)* |
is the community
relations director at St. John Medical Center and this
is her 11th Gridiron show. She has just finished work on her first novel,
"Great Performances in the History of Gridiron." It is a short story. Kelly says
her favorite part of Gridiron is the camaraderie of the cast and all the parties. Says
Thayer, "I just love this show. The Red Glove Revue does so much to help stray
animals in this town and it makes me proud to be a Shriner"." |
| Anne Thompson
(wardrobe & costumes) |
a.k.a. Annie the
Tart. A wee lass in the ragged hills of Scotland, Annie the Tart, as she came to be
called, was as quick with her wit as she was with a thread and needle.  Helping put food on the table as a lass from a poor shepherd family, many a
tartan were customized for many a clan by wee Annie. And as Annie grew up to be quite a
Scottish looker, many a suitor would vie for her hand only to have her break their hears
and turn them out into the cold. Her poor exasperated father eventually had to send her
away to the east coast of the Americas to settle the village unrest and to settle down.
Annie the Tart's unruly and willful spirit. And indeed, the states helped shape her
artistic nature, although did not do much for her willful and unruly spirit, she tends to
be just a wee bit bossy. But you'll see Annie's handiwork tonight as she
weaves her magic on the costuming of the Gridiron clan. |
| Julie Watt (cast) |
whose hair color
remains unnatural, is a native Tulsan who knows most of your secrets. Having failed
abysmally in the fields of advertising, stock brokerage and law, Julie currently works for
a language school, at which she maliciously misleads international students as to
"correct" English vocabulary, grammar usage and slang. She derives a great deal
of pleasure from this. Jules is perhaps best known for the company she keeps; rather
enormous poodle companions,  blue brothers aptly
monikered Jake and Elwood. In her spare time, Jules loves to whip up elaborate gourmet
meals in her immaculately clean home. For real relaxation and moderate profit, she makes
whimsical yard ornaments from beer cans and "gently used" pantyhose. |