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July 23, 2008

The Saddest News in the World

His name will mean nothing to most of you, because you never had a chance to see him perform. But those who were lucky enough to have seen Danny Peterson work will be sad indeed to hear that he died yesterday morning of natural causes. There's a lovely article in the Idaho Statesman, complete with some fabulous pictures.

I haven't stopped crying since my dad called to tell me.

I was fortunate enough to work with Danny the summer I interned at ISF, and luckier still to get to play Linda to his Willy Loman two years ago in Death of a Salesman here. That production was one of the opportunities that helped me see I could be an actor again. And Danny, bless him, was a big part of that.

Danny was one of the most generous actors I have ever worked with. He was funny and smart and insightful and sweet and kind and had a voice that I think could probably be heard on the moon. The man had the clearest, loudest set of natural pipes I've ever heard in my life. I was always kind of jealous of his effortless volume.

And his characters were always deeply, deeply honest. Whether they were kings or fools or failing salesmen, Danny's characters had a core of human truth that made them stick in your heart.

I can't imagine how the festival must be scrambling right now to open Macbeth and fill the roles he was playing. I mean, there's always an understudy schedule where everybody shifts into a different role should someone be out for a performance or two, but to lose an actor completely... And to try to work with the enormous hole left by Danny, someone most of those actors have worked with for years, would be so hard.

There's a memorial service for him on Monday. I'm sorely tempted to go...

Posted by sally at July 23, 2008 08:26 AM

Comments

Posted by: inlandempiregirl at July 26, 2008 10:26 PM

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