Page Created: 09/23/10. Last Update: 09/23/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 01/16/08.
DOUGLAS OVERTOOM
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: August 8, 1987.
Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 25.
Meeting Program: Talk/Performance by Theater Actor/Co Producer.
Notes:
Douglas Overtoom was a friend of past guest speaker, amateur film maker John Mullen. Doug and his then-wife, ran the Off- Off- Broadway American Shakespeare Repertory in Manhattan. The group specialized in imaginative interpretations Elizabethan Theatre, and club members regularly attended performances.
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1987 Philip De Parto:
DIABOLICAL MOTH STARTLES GUEST SPEAKER!
As Doug Overtoom, well-known actor and long-time club member, went through the devil-summoning incantation from Marlowe's DR FAUSTUS, club members were startled to see a large black moth fly onto the stage.
Doug had just finished relating how in an early performance of the play the five actors playing devils were horrified to discover a sixth devil on stage -- and how the actors and the audience had beat a hasty retreat.
With great presence of mind, Doug cut the incantation short, and the moth hurled itself angrily onto a baseboard molding, where it sat hopefully for the rest of the talk.
Another highlight of Doug's talk was the enactment of the appearance of Hamlet's father's ghost. This was so successful that one small member of the audience departed in terror at the break, followed by her disappointed parents.
Doug also talked about MACBETH, a play so plagued by cast deaths and accidents that many actors to this day refuse to name it, and refer to it only as "The Scottish Tragedy."
After the bread, Doug talked about the differences in acting methods for stage, TV, movies and radio, and how styles in acting have changed over the years.
Twenty five people attended. Ronnie Katz won the book drawing.