By Ron Iannone
Sadly, I lost one of my best friends yesterday: Ralph Brem, the former editor of The Dominion Post.
I will miss our weekly breakfasts at Shoney’s. I will miss his insights and ideas for the plays I was working on. I will also miss his kind and gentle criticisms of my writing: “Get rid of the academic crap. Be simple and write things that are right in front of you.”
He used to say that reporters have that problem.
“Everyone walks past 1,000 story ideas every day,” he would say. “The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them.”
I was always amazed how Ralph would be able to write an editorial day after day for 11 years and do it beautifully and, sometimes, politically.
Besides this, if you spent any time with Ralph, you knew he loved to tell stories. And most of them had a bit of wisdom hidden throughout.
Most of all, Ralph dreamed of being an actor and someday making it to Broadway. Every since he was a little kid, that was his dream, he told me. So when I gave him character roles in West Virginia Public Theatre productions, he was deeply grateful.
Now that I look back, I think Ralph just enjoyed being around theater people. He loved being part of the team both on and off the set.
Sometimes, when he was late for rehearsals, I would find him with makeup artists or sound technicians. You see, Ralph loved all parts of theater. We would say Ralph had the “theater disease.” And he wanted more and more
of it.
A common friend of ours, Bill Hayes, wrote to me the following on hearing of Ralph’s passing: “Wonderful guy! So many memories! Loved his spirit, his writing talent, his outlook on life. …”
After Ralph had been retired for a few years, he called me and asked, “Do you have roles for me? I miss it, Ron. I’m dying here.”
In a way, he was. He had Alzheimer’s and his memory was vanishing quickly. Soon, I found it difficult to have any discussions with him because his mind would stray. However, the last time I spoke to him, for a short moment the confusion faded as he asked, “When are the auditions going to be for WVPT?”
I gave him the dates and he said very clearly and steady as before, “I’ll be there, Ron. Hold me a spot.”
Once Ralph wrote an editorial about WVPT being the treasure of the arts in the area. I would say to Ralph now, “In my opinion, Ralph, you’re the true treasure. Your thoughts and stories will forever live in my heart.”
Ron Iannone is a resident of Morgantown and former artistic director of West Virginia Public Theatre.
