Todd before Gillian Came Along

As long as we were digging into our informant's story, we decided to see what else we could find out about his "acting" "career". Not counting compulsory school and church programs, his stage debut was the year prior to Gillian's. The play was "Harvey", and he played Dwayne Wilson, a crude, sexually aggressive orderly at an insane asylum (another bit of anti-type-casting, showing the apparent range this promising young actor once had). On the right is D.J. Boyd playing the lovably eccentric alcoholic Elwood P. Dowd. Apparently Todd was up for the same part, and nearly landed this plum role in his first-ever audition. But D.J. - a senior, while Todd was only a junior - got it, and they named Todd "understudy" for the role as a consolation prize. To the left is John Hazewinkel, as the psychiatrist. That's Sue Trowbridge playing opposite Todd in the lower picture. John Logie, son of the long-serving Grand Rapids mayor of the same name, appeared in this production as well, suggesting yet another connection to a governmental conspiracy.

 Sadly, Todd quit the stage after "Arsenic". He flirted with getting involved in theatre the following year in college, but soon found other interests and developed a life out of the spotlight. Gillian, thankfully, was infected with the theatre bug, and continued acting in school and community productions, and the rest is all in her official résumé and numerous fan sites. On the strength of those early "let's put on a show" productions in which Gillian participated, City High has since built a very strong theatre program, whose recent productions (frankly) blow away the easy farces they did on stage back in Todd's day.

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The color photo is (c) copyright 2001, The Grand Rapids Press, reproduced here under Fair Use principles. All other photos are (c) copyright 1981-1983, Grand Rapids Public Schools, used by permission of the former yearbook photo editor. Gillian Anderson is (c) copyright 1968, Ed and Rosemary Anderson. "The X-Files" is a trademark of Fox TV. "Amway" is a trademark of a multi-level-marketing outfit based in Ada, Michigan. "FBI" is a trademark of the government of the United States of America, Inc. "Truth" is an illusion; "the whole truth" even more so. This page itself is (c) copyright 2002, Todd VerBeek.
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