Marley & Me’ writer featured speaker at Cooper series

By Peggie MillerPerforming arts columnist

Updated: 10.09.09

Writer JOHN GROGAN, who penned the acclaimed “Marley and Me,“ comes to THE JOHN COOPER SCHOOL Wednesday, Nov. 11, as featured speaker in Cooper’s fifth Annual Signatures Author Series. Tickets are available to the public at $75 each.

“Marley and Me” is an autobiographical work based on Grogan’s life with wife, Jenny, after they acquired a yellow Labrador retriever named Marley in 1991. Subtitle of the book is “Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog.” Although Marley, whose name honored reggae singer Bob Marley, owned a lot of bad habits, he brought a wealth of humor, pathos and love into Grogan’s life.

“Parents should give children a good education first of all, and then a dog,” Grogan once said in an interview. “Dogs exhibit the most valuable qualities of life: Loyalty, devotion, selflessness, optimism and love — all examples of commitment that matters.”

Grogan, 52, grew up in a devout Catholic family close to Detroit.

After his Michigan days, Grogan eventually became a Pennsylvania Inquirer newspaper columnist. He sometimes wrote about the antics of Marley so that his readers developed an association. When Marley died in 2003 after living with Grogan for 12 years, he was buried under an arc of cherry trees and wild raspberry bushes in Grogan’s backyard. The columnist wrote so touchingly about the death of his beloved, but incorrigible pet that over 800 readers responded, whereas his columns typically drew only 40 to 50 replies. From this reaction he was encouraged to expand that piece into a nonfiction book about life with Marley. Eventually the book became a movie that starred Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson.

The reader reception to “Marley and Me,” published in 2005, made Grogan wealthy enough to move his family of five from a modest Pennsylvania home into a restored manor on a wooded Pensylvania hillside.

A year ago this month, another Grogan narrative titled “The Longest Trip Home” was released. It describes a childhood where he was a gleefully mischievous boy; and his journey into adulthood, particularly after meeting strong willed Jenny whom he married when he was a police reporter for a small Michigan newspaper. Described as painfully funny and poignant, “The Longest Trip Home” relates amusing happenings of his religious confessions at mass, how he and other altar boys got into the ceremonial wine and comparable tales, and maturing to accepting his parents’ humanity.

“The Longest Trip Home” ultimately deals with somber, adult grief, “the fateful call, onset of illness, and the final trip home that every one of us who has parents has made, or will make, to say goodbye to them.” Grogan’s father died in 2004 at age 89.

The Nov. 11 luncheon also presents local authors on hand to sell and autograph their books. John Grogan will autograph a chair that goes to the highest bidder at a silent auction.

The Nov. 11 luncheon at THE WOODLANDS WATERWAY MARRIOTT HOTEL AND CONVENTION CENTER begins at 11:30 a.m. It is presented by JCS Fine Arts Council through sponsors TEXAS MONTHLY; CANDI AND GERALD GLENN; LORRIE and BRIAN PETRASKUS; AMY LECOCQ; RICK SHAPIRO; JOANNE and JOHN TIKKANEN. Individual reservations cost $75, with table sponsorships going from $1,250 to $7,500. To reserve, please call (281) 367-0900, extension 441, or visit www.johncooper.org.

If you were planning to see THE CRIGHTON PLAYERS’ comedy “Biloxi Blues” at the Owen Theatre this weekend, put that idea on hold until Oct. 16 to 18. Instead, go to the CONROE CAJUN CATFISH FESTIVAL opening today in downtown Conroe and continuing through Sunday eve. JOE VISER directs “Biloxi Blues” two more weekends, ending with a matinee Oct. 25.

Although six of the seven major characters are young males undergoing the rigors of boot camp, MELISSA SINGLETON and RACHEL MOORE create lesser, though pivotal, female roles.

From her latest role as a warm and tender mother of 10 children in STAGE RIGHT’S “Cheaper by the Dozen,” Melissa made a hairpin turnaround — this time she plays a jaded prostitute who introduces chief character Eugene to a seedy side of army life, in Neil Simon’s autobiographical vehicle. JORDAN REAL quite capably handles the role of Eugene (Simon).

RACHEL MOORE depicts Daisy, a young Catholic high school girl and love interest to Eugene, whom she meets at a dance strictly supervised by nuns. Also pulling off superb renderings are JAKE DELL, W. WILLINGHAM and THOMAS WHITE in this unrelenting portrayal of youths becoming soldiers. To reserve at $20 call (936) 539-4090 weekdays between 3 and 6 p.m.