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Peter Coyote Virgil "Web" Webster on The Inside 
After graduating from Grinnell College with a BA in English Literature in 1964, and despite having been accepted at the prestigious Writer's Workshops in Iowa, Peter Coyote moved to the West Coast to pursue a Master's Degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. After a short apprenticeship at the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, he joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe, a radical political street theater which had recently been arrested for performing in the City's parks without permits.In the Mime Troupe, he was soon acting, writing and directing. He directed the first cross-country to tour of "The Minstrel Show, Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel," a highly controversial piece closed by the authorities in several cities. The cast was arrested several times before a tour of eastern colleges and universities, ending triumphantly in New York City, where they were invited and sponsored by comedian Dick Gregory. The following year, a play, "Olive Pits," that Peter co-wrote, directed and performed in, won a Special OBIE from New York's Village Voice newspaper. From 1967 to 1975, Coyote took off to "do the Sixties" where he became a prominent member of the San Francisco counter-culture community and founding member of the Diggers, an anarchistic group who supplied free food, free housing and free medical aid to the hordes of runaways who appeared during the Summer of Love. The Diggers evolved into a group known as the Free Family which established chains of communes around the Pacific Northwest and Southwest. Many of the stories of that period are included in his memoir called "Sleeping Where I Fall" published by Counterpoint Press in April of 1998. One of the stories incorporated into his book is "Carla's Story," which was awarded the 1993-1994 Pushcart Prize, a national prize for excellence in writing, published by a non-commercial literary magazine. From 1975 to1983 Coyote was a member of the California State Arts Council, the State agency which determines art policy. After his first year, he was elected Chairman by his peers three years in a row, and during his tenure as Chairman, the Council's overhead expenses dropped from 50% to 15%, the lowest in the State, and the Arts Council budget rose from one-to-fourteen million dollars annually. It has never been higher since. These political victories, among others, fostered Coyote's decision to re-enter acting. In 1978, he began to work at San Francisco's award-winning Magic Theater doing plays continuously "to shake out the rust" and get his unused skills back in working order. While playing the lead in the World Premiere of Sam Shepard's "True West," he was spotted by a Hollywood agent who asked to represent him. Seventy plus films later, Peter is still acting.   PRIME PICKS TWO AND A HALF MEN Tonight at 7:30 PM Twenty-Five Little Pre-Pubers Without a Snoot-Ful Judith tricks Charlie into volunteering his musical skills to produce Jake's fourth-grade play  |
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