The Conical Glass: Brushes with greatness, past and present

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Brushes with greatness, past and present

Last month at the Shotgun Players fundraiser, one of the items up for bid in the silent auction was dinner with two of my favorite Shotgun actors, John Mercer and Trish Mulholland (bios & photos here). I was intent on snagging that item and hovered over the clipboard to make sure mine was the highest bid. Joe made some comment to John Mercer about how "my wife is your biggest fan" and I was sure that the two of them were going to be dreading having to go out with a crazy stalker lady. I thought perhaps it would wind up like some unholy cross between the "Flight of the Conchords" episode where the boys have to go to dinner with Mel, and the old SNL sketch "The Chris Farley Show." "Remember when you guys were in Caryl Churchill's 'Owners'? That was awesome! Have you seen 'Batman' yet?"

Happily, though, the actors could not have been nicer and I think everyone wound up having a great time. I got to ask lots of questions about their lives and careers (Mercer is originally from the northern U.K., Mulholland is from Australia) and even got to hear a bit of theatrical gossip. They are both terrific, friendly people as well as excellent actors. You can catch Mercer this fall in Shotgun's production of "Macbeth" and Mulholland in Aurora Theatre's "The Devil's Disciple."

Speaking of acting, with "The X-Files" movie opening this weekend, I should mention that one of my very, very tiny claims to fame is that I went to high school and acted in a class play, "Arsenic and Old Lace," with Gillian "Scully" Anderson. One of my old classmates even has the photographic proof available here. I wish I had some good Gillian stories to tell, but I honestly don't recall ever even having a conversation with her. When "The X-Files" debuted, I watched a couple episodes before deciding that it wasn't really my thing. Still... good for her for going on to have an exciting, glamorous career!

Since my high school has never had a reunion, my images of my classmates tend to be frozen in time. I decided to Google a few of them to see what became of the ones who didn't go on to be movie stars. This guy is a college professor. This guy (with whom I've exchanged a couple emails over the years) is a Project Manager at a big state university. This gal lives in Seattle and works for Microsoft. I guess Gillian is the only famous alum, since she's the only one mentioned in my high school's Wikipedia entry.

posted by 125records @ 4:47 PM

1 Comments:

At 10:11 PM, Taj said…

Gillian was cool. Have my signed year book and a letter she wrote me in college - they remind me of her coolitude...of course I was was way to mature to write back to an underclassman ... so I'm full of losertude.
Nice to read your blog - hope all is well on your part of the West Coast.