CHICAGO — As a suburban Chicago high school teacher in the late 1950s, Ralph Lane was Frank Galati's drama coach and the person who first inspired him to pursue a career in theatre. If that were Lane's only claim to fame, it would be little more than a proud boast on a résumé and a footnote in Galati's biography.
But after earning a doctorate at Northwestern University (to which he also steered Galati), Lane became a theatre professor at Illinois State University (ISU) in Bloomington, three hours southwest of Chicago. There, in the early 1970s, Lane was teacher and director to John Malkovich, Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, Laurie Metcalf, Tom Irwin, and Rondi Reed. When they and others formed the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in the mid-'70s, Lane continued to advise them.
Lane died on Dec. 22 at age 78. Letitia Dace, a retired University of Massachusetts professor and another Lane student, said he "strove for authenticity in his productions. Those whom he directed absorbed that lesson well. What a great contribution he made to my life and to the American theatre of the latter half of the 20th century." Dace's statement sounds less like hyperbole when one adds Judith Ivey, Gene Weygandt, Ricardo Gutiérrez, and Peggy Roeder — the last three being highly honored Chicago-based actors — to Lane's roster of ISU students.
Once Galati completed his own Northwestern doctorate and joined the university's faculty, Lane would invite him to critique Lane's ISU acting students. It was there that Galati met the future Steppenwolf crew; he is now an ensemble member. "The first time I saw John Malkovich and Laurie Metcalf was in a class of Ralph's at ISU. I was supposed to critique them [but] I had nothing to say. You could tell they were brilliant," Galati recalled. "We all adored him and feared him and had deep, deep respect for him. He was a devoted mentor and friend. He was a great man and an inspired teacher and he could be tough. But he had a wonderful sense of humor."
After retiring from ISU, Lane returned to Chicago, where he established Arts Lanes Productions in 1985 in association with producer Douglas Bragan at the Ivanhoe Theatre. Arts Lanes continues to stage matinee performances of Shakespeare for high school students, playing to tens of thousands and employing hundreds of Chicago actors.
Commented Bragan, "Ralph's approach to these Shakespeare shows was quite different than many other companies. The shows are not shortened all that much. They run about two hours without intermission, which is almost the whole play in the case of A Midsummer Night's Dream and probably two-thirds of Romeo and Juliet.... In an artistic sense, Ralph was adamant about breaking down the fourth wall and using the audience as much as possible, which works especially well with high school students."
Bragan continued, "Ralph was one of the best directors and most creative artistic minds I have ever seen. I learned a great deal from him, and his ideas continue to influence me to this very day. As an educator, he was a giant. His greatest legacy will probably be the students he had, many of whom have become major stars. Through them he will have an effect for generations to come."
Lane retired to Florida in the 1990s. His wife, Ronnie, was a costume designer and also an ISU faculty member. After her death last October, Lane returned to Illinois to be near his son's family. He was buried Dec. 28 in Waterloo, Ill., and is survived by his son, a daughter, seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. And a lot of great actors were privileged to call Ralph Lane "teacher."