Imagine

I'm doing some research on Ian McKellan and, on his website (which is pretty cool), I found a poster for a production of The Promise by Aleksei Arbuzov. The leads in the production, above the title with their head shots in the poster, were Judi Dench, Ian McKellan, and Ian McShane. Imagine! I'd pay good money to see any one of them live. I'm a huge fan of each. All three of them, young, fresh, working in rep together. Wow! Think of it.

I got to see Kyle McLaughlin, the year before Dune came out, play Romeo at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He was great. I worked with Susanne Bertish at Santa Cruz, so this sort of thing does happen in America too. But the Brittish have a system for bringing up actors, and the great movie villains we know now (since that's what most Brittish actors end up playing) all were kids together back in the sixties. On Saturday Night once McKellan joked about him, Anthony Perkins and Maggie Smith all studying together ("And now, she's the harry Potter lady, He's Hanibal Lechter and I'm an action figure."--in fact, they're all action figures. Judi Dench too. I wouldn't be surprised if Ian Mcshane had an action figure for his Sweringin character on Deadwood. Now, a Lovejoy action figure! That would be ultra cool!).

Lynn Rose (link to left) told me in highschool "one day I'll be able to say 'I know Michael Cramer.' I know that!" Will she? Will the people who I worked with at Fair Oaks or Santa Cruz or Sac State or in Automatic Superstar ever say "Yeah, I worked with him before he made it." I mean, let's face it: I haven't paid any kind of dues. I left acting a long time ago, and I just keep drifting back to it. I do love it (and I love directing even more). Who knows.

Maybe this should go in my livejournal instead of Media Grouch. It started out as a rumination on acting in England, but then got personal. Oh well. This isn't a professional website by any stretch of the imagination.

I mean, you can see them on stage now. I saw David Warner do Major Barbara on Broadway (box seats even). But think of it. Judi Dench, Ian McKellan and Ian McShane all together on stage. What a night that would be.