A REMEMBRANCE: The Star Trek, X-Men — and Shakespearean — actor, died this week at the age of 86…
By SCOTT TIPTON
Come, take a trip with me in the Wayback Machine to the fall of 1989, at the University of California at Santa Barbara. It was my freshman year of college, and a childhood friend from back home had come to visit for the weekend, for the first time.
On that sunny and cool Saturday morning, I showed my pal around campus. One of the first stops was Campbell Hall, the school’s largest lecture hall, which was also frequently used for theatrical productions. I had no idea if we could get in, but we climbed the steps anyway and found the main doors unlocked.
We step inside and are both shocked at what we see and hear. On a bare stage with only a chair and table, there was Patrick Stewart, treading the boards with a book in his hands, speaking to a small group of students in the first two rows.
My friend (a lifelong Star Trek fan) stood frozen in surprise and shock, while I played it off as if this was something I saw every day. “Oh, hey: It’s Patrick Stewart rehearsing for his upcoming one-man show of A Christmas Carol. Let’s head on down and listen for a while.”
And so it was that my buddy and I had a front-row seat to watch one of the greatest actors alive in the process of creation: figuring out choreography, making character choices, polling the audience on American vs. British pronunciations, singing in full voice to test the acoustics. Watching him jump from the timidity of Bob Cratchit to the bombast of the Ghost of Christmas Present, from the bitter, forlorn Ebenezer Scrooge to the sweet innocence of Tiny Tim – it was a purely-by-chance miracle, never to be repeated.
I would be fortunate enough to see Sir Patrick’s magnificent one-man production of the Dickens classic that year, and twice more in the years to come, but none had the magic of watching him craft that remarkable performance in real time, before our very eyes. A master at work.
It was a gift, I tell you.
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MORE
— PATRICK STEWART DEAD AT 86. Click here.
— The 13 Best Comics Movie & TV Casting Choices Ever. Click here.
