Is acting a young person’s game? When thinking of actresses, the mind goes to the doe-eyed and innocent ingénue. But there’s another breed of performer, the one who has seen the world and can reflect that experience back to the audience: Think Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, Angela Lansbury and Elaine Stritch.

These are Las Vegas actress Gail Kanner’s favorite thespians. With such fantastic role models, it’s no surprise that Kanner continues to light up the stage.

She sizzled as the rapping grandma in The Wedding Singer at Super Summer Theatre. In another grandmotherly role, if slightly darker, Kanner plays Oma in the immersive holiday show Krampus by Majestic Repertory Theatre. She reprises Oma in this year’s socially distanced Majestic production Horrorwood Video: Slay Ride. She’s also a regular at Las Vegas Little Theatre, with credits including Spitfire Grill and 4,000 Miles.

“I’ve just had more experiences than someone who’s 35,” says Kanner, who recently turned 80. “I can draw more out of myself because of my age.”

For Kanner, performing in Las Vegas is something of a second act. She started young: singing at age 4, acting in school and performing in an elite choir. At age 16, she even competed in a television variety show called the Ted Mack Amateur Hour. “We lost to a 6-year-old trumpet player,” Kanner says of her singing group. “But we had a great time.”

Then life—children, work, friends and three marriages—got in the way. She did some acting while living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, playing the wife in the acclaimed play Sylvia. But when a job brought Kanner to Las Vegas 20 years ago, her weekend work schedule kept her from the stage.

“The beauty of being an old person is that you can retire,” says Kanner, who freed herself from the burdens of working and performed in her first Las Vegas Little Theater play in 2006. She has kept a full dance card for the last five-odd years—several plays a year, until the pandemic cut things short.

“I’ve just been really happy that directors and artistic directors have chosen plays that have older women in them, so that I had the opportunity of auditioning, because I didn’t come here young,” Kanner says.

Kanner didn’t study theater; her career consisted of sales and administration jobs. But she thrives on learning from her colleagues. “I love being directed,” Kanner says. “That’s been a very important part of my learning.”

The pandemic has sidelined Kanner. Between her age and some minor underlying health conditions, she says that she’s too worried to participate in the few local in-person auditions. Still, she participates in a weekly play-reading group online.

“The concept of losing a year at my age, philosophically, has been an interesting road,” Kanner says of her isolation, but that’s the closest she gets to negativity. She prefers to focus on the positive and look to the future.

“I’m just hoping that there are more roles for me,” Kanner says of post-pandemic life. She acknowledges that her age leaves her “pretty pigeonholed,” but explains that she doesn’t need to be a leading lady to be happy—she just wants roles she can sink her teeth into.

“It’s really nice to get a character role and not a lead. … There’s not pages and pages of lines to memorize … and you can really develop them. I would just love to have a good character role: somebody’s grandma, some old painter, some artist … I’m not giving up. I want to still act whenever this comes back.”

Gail Kanner’s colleagues describe her as a pillar of strength

“Gail is a fabulous musical theater actress, and I’ve always been monumentally jealous of that. After I was battling leukemia, she became my biggest friend, confidant and supporter. She never pussyfoots around—she’ll tell you exactly what she thinks” –Barbara King, actress

“Gail has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Not only does she have an excellent BS detector, she’s also kind and compassionate and always cracking jokes. She’s a role model in the theater and also for women.” –Natalie Senecal, actress

“I always cast Gail as women of steel. Although they may be older characters, they have a strong sense of integrity. Gail has a no-nonsense approach to acting that I respect, and the younger ensemble members inevitably adopt her as their diva.” –Troy Heard, artistic director, Majestic Repertory Theatre