Actors treat library patrons to a horrific night in Brick

Actor Tom Worsdale gets into the part of the narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Tell-Tale Heart." Worsdale and fellow actor Jim Dyne presented "A Meeting of the Macabre," a fictionalized meeting between Poe and author Bram Stoker, at the Brick branch of the Ocean County Library on Oct. 28. See page 3. Poe and Stoker come alive in 'A Meeting of the Macabre'

The old man's pale, cloudy blue eye had driven him almost mad. "It was open, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness, all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones."

He'd been watching the old man for some time. He could stand it no longer. He killed him just after the stroke of midnight and hid the body in the floorboards.

A few hours later, the police came calling. The suspect tells them the old man is in the country. They chat. But then the old man's heart beats again, louder and louder.

"I admit the deed! Tear up the planks! Here, here it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

Tom Worsdale plays Edgar Allan Poe (left) and Jim Dyne plays Bram Stoker in a dramatized fictional meeting of the two writers at the Brick branch of the Ocean County Library on Oct. 28. The two men, both Jackson residents have their own theater company. Tom Worsdale made the long-dead Edgar Allan Poe come alive again in his thundering rendition of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" at the Brick branch of the Ocean County Library last week.

Worsdale and his friend, Jim Dyne, joined together for "A Meeting of the Macabre" to share an hour of horror with library patrons.

The two actors sipped what appeared to be red wine from a bottle of Transylvanian-made "Vampire Pinot Noir" and discussed their works and their lives.

And while Vampire Pinot Noir is a real wine, Dyne and Worsdale weren't drinking the real stuff that night. Their wine glasses were filled with cranberry grape juice.

"We have to go through the whole bottle in a short time," Worsdale explained.

Worsdale wasn't initially fascinated by Poe, whom he has played for 10 years in various venues.

"I was hired to portray him," he said. "I developed an interest from there.

"He was such a complex character and so well rounded," Worsdale said. "Most people think of him as a writer of horror stories. But he wrote the first detective stories, he influenced Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he was a renowned critic. He was quite an interesting guy. He wasn't just a short-story horror writer."

Worsdale wrote the Poe and Stoker show about five years ago and recruited his friend Dyne to play Stoker.

Worsdale has been playing Poe for so long, it's not hard to get into character.

"You just kind of roll into it and roll out of it," he said.

Worsdale wore a black suit designed to resemble 1840s garb, complete with a cravat.

Dyne wore a period suit from the later 1800s. And there's a reason for that.

"They were not contemporaries at all," Worsdale said. "Stoker was 2 years old when Poe died. This is totally fictional. I created this show with them because it was fun."

Dyne read a passage out of the Irish-born Stoker's most famous work, "Dracula," an excerpt from character Jonathan Harker's diary when he first arrives at the count's castle.

It took Stoker seven years to write the novel, which was not well received by critics, Dyne said.

"My audience was the middle class of Great Britain," he said during the show.

Harker has what he thinks is a dream where the count and three women appear in his bedroom, eager to get their mouths on him. They cast no shadows on the floor, despite the moonlight.

"This man belongs to me," Dyne intoned. "When I am done with him, you shall kiss him at your will."

Worsdale also read Poe's classic "The Raven," and Dyne read Stoker's horror story "The Squaw."

October is always their busy season for the Poe and Stoker show, although they are booked for Morristown's First Night show on New Year's Eve.

They are slated to do "A Christmas Carol" for the entire month of December.

"I do all the male voices and Jim does Scrooge," Worsdale said. "And my wife does the female voices. We go through the show in about an hour."

The two men are partners in Toma Jama Productions' Traveling Literary Theatre.

And between shows, there's always their day jobs.

Worsdale, 56, is the public affairs chief at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. Dyne, 59, is head of international training for Avaya, a telecommunications company. Both men live in Jackson.

For more information on the theater group, go to www.tomajama.com