Performances:
The Actor
Mark Twain isn't Cal Pritner’s first encounter with great men in one-person plays. He has impersonated the controversial defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, and the Protestant Reformation religious leader, Martin Luther. As himself, he performed a one-person show about William Shakespeare's attitudes toward women in "For Several Virtues Have I Liked Several Women."
Besides his work onstage in Chicago, New York, and on tour, Pritner has logged time in front of the camera. He had a recurring role as a prosecuting attorney on "Chicago Story," was an Air Force officer on "The A-Team," was a detective on HBO’s "The Speck Murders" and on "Hunter," a crooked cop on "Untouchables," and most recently appeared on film as the governor of Missouri in Robert Altman’s "Kansas City."
Former students include: Gary Cole, John Malkovich, Judith Ivey, Laurie Metcalf, William Peterson, Tom Irwin, Suzzanne Douglas, and Robert Townsend. Students from Pritner's tenure as Illinois State's theatre chair formed Chicago's Tony-Award winning Steppenwolf Theatre.