Introduction!: The Poster Formerly Known as NewDealer

by Saul DeGraw

Hi all! Tod asked me to write an introductory post as I have moved up the ranks from being a guest contributor to becoming the newest OT regular. He also asked me to pick a nom de plum for myself. Please call me ND if it suits your fancy.

What to say about myself? I was born and raised in the suburbs of New York and fell in love with theatre and art when I was around 12 or 13 years old. I studied theatre as an undergraduate in college and then went to teach English in Japan for a year because I wanted the experience to live abroad. I came back and spent the next five-six years attempting for a career as a theatre director in New York City. This involved a lot of unpaid internships, working on off-off-off Broadway productions,

graduate school, and an eventual realization that most people do not earn livings as artists and I needed a back-up plan because I did not want to be stuck as a starving artist in my forties and fifties with no options. My original idea was to become an academic but I knew too many people in adjunct hell. I decided to attend law school which used to be the traditional path for arts and humanities people who wanted decent livings. I am also the son and brother of lawyers so it seemed like the thing to do.

However, I decided to attend law school right as the market collapsed during my 1L year. All things considered, I am doing pretty well but still trying to figure it out. Such is life.

I am happy to be your newest regular. I will continue writing about politics and current events and policy but would like to expand to more cultural writing and not in a Mindless Diversions kind of way. The New York Times ran an article about how only 1/3 of Broadway’s audience are men and I am mulling a post about whether we should care about this and what is the solution.

If there are any culture or other issues you want me to touch upon, please let me know in the comments and I will see what I can do.