Marcus Crowder Interviews Greta Gerwig

Marcus Crowder also got a brief run-down of Greta's stage appearances when she lived in Sacramento:

Seeing the 26-year-old dressed casually chic for a Friday night in a thick black sweater and long black leather skirt, the regulars at the Shady Lady might have thought, "She's not from around here." But she is. She was raised in River Park, across from Sacramento State, and her parents still live there. She went to Sutter Middle School and graduated from St. Francis High School.

Gerwig's mother, Christine, lists a who's who of area arts professionals her daughter was involved with growing up. She had classes with Ron Cunningham at the Sacramento Ballet and James Wheatley's dance group at Celebration Arts. She did plays with Ed Trafton at Jesuit High School.

"She worked with Doc Larson at CSUS when she was in the fourth grade," Christine Gerwig said.

Gerwig was also in musicals at the Woodland Opera House and spent a summer with Sacramento City College's Shakespeare in the Park the year it did "Merry Wives of Windsor."

"I only said one word, but I memorized everybody else's lines," Gerwig said.

She also studied with Ed Claudio as a child and later was in several productions at his Actor's Theatre of Sacramento on Del Paso Boulevard.

"Ed was really wonderful. He put all these plays on and let me be all these characters" including Desdemona" in "Othello."

Claudio remembers her well. "I worked with her all through high school and helped her with her college auditions, too," the veteran acting teacher said.

"She had it all the while, you could see that. You can't teach the talent, but you can give them opportunities to explore it. You teach them craft."