You can watch the World Cup Final with playwright Mark Brown

The World Cup only comes around every four years so the opportunities to watch the World Cup final with playwright Mark Brown are very rare. Before he was an award winning playwright, Mark was a star soccer player. In fact, he was recruited to play soccer by a nationally ranked University (Appalachian State, 10th in the nation). Mark is also a lifelong fan of the German National Team. He used to watch Soccer Made in Germany every weekend (the only soccer you could watch in America in the mid to late 70s) and tried to emulate his childhood hero, the uber-sweeper Franz “Der Kaiser” Beckenbauer. Bidding for this extraordinary event starts at the incredibly low bid of $10.00. *Must be able to record the game.

Der Kaiser

The above is what I want the Commonweal Theatre to do. The theatre has graciously invited me to Lanesboro, MN to be a guest speaker for their highly popular Sunday Salon series. I’ll be talking about playwriting and the challenges of adapting Verne’s book, Around the World in 80 Days, for the stage.

But here’s the rub: the discussion happens at the exact same time as the World Cup final. The exact same time! It would be rude of me to be constantly checking my FIFA app for updates on the game, so I need to find someone to record the game and then let me watch it. And then I thought, “Hey, why not help the theatre make some money.” They could raffle off the chance to let someone watch the final with me. Or someone could bid on it and send me to someone they don’t like. It works any way for me as long as I get to see the World Cup final. It’s Germany for goodness sake! Germany in the final!!

Someone send me a soccer angel.

The famed Soccer Made in Germany