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* Denotes Members of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
INFORMATION ON SEVERAL PLAYWRIGHTS AND HISTORICAL PERSONALITIES ELTC Notes on Ruth Draper's COMPANY OF CHARACTERS Ruth Draper (1884-1956) was the fifth of six children born into the affluent New York City Draper household. Her father, William Henry Draper, was a well-known physician, and her mother, Ruth Dana, was the daughter of Charles Anderson Dana, editor and publisher of “The New York Sun.” Her nephew was dancer Paul Draper, and her second cousin was architect Paul Phipps, father of British actress Joyce Grenfell. Friends of the family included pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. She was a quiet child, who meticulously studied people around her – whether it was her German governess, or the residents in the Maine village where the Drapers had a summer home – and created monologues based on her findings which she performed for family and friends at private parties and charity events. Meanwhile, she was pursuing a career in the theater, appearing at the Neighborhood Playhouse in 1915, and making her Broadway debut a year later in A Lady’s Name. In 1917, she performed in an evening of monologues, the most successful of which was the only one she had written, titled “The Actress.” From then on, she only performed her own material. In 1920, she made her London debut at Aeolian Hall, garnering her first of many rave reviews, and establishing herself as the preeminent practitioner of her art – a master performer of the character monologue. During an extensive tour of the United States from 1924-1928, she had a command performance before King George V at Windsor Castle in 1926. In 1928-1929, she played 18 weeks at the Comedy Theater in NYC. In the 1930s and 1940s, she toured throughout the world, performing on many stages, and gave private recitals for Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, and the royal families of Britain, Spain, and Belgium. Her repertoire included 60 dramatic sketches featuring 52 characters whom she performed, as well as 316 others whom she evoked during the course of the sketches. And her only props were a chair or two, possibly a table, and her costumes were composed of various scarves. Eleonora Duse declared “Ruth Draper is theater.” Ruth loved the family summer house build by her father at Dark Harbor on Islesboro, Maine. After her mother died in 1914, the house was left jointly to the Draper children, but Ruth eventually bought it from her siblings, and the Maine home became her refuge. She filled the house with friends and family, and she housed seven English children and their three nannies who'd been sent to America for safety during World War II. Ruth kept them busy by playing board games, swimming, going on walks, reading - and she tucked them in at night. The love of her life, the Italian poet and political activist, Lauro de Bosis, disappeared mysteriously in 1931 while he was dropping anti-Fascist pamphlets over Rome from a plane. His remains have never been found. Ruth died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 72 on December 29, 1956, following a New York performance. The following June, family members rowed out into Gilkey's Harbor, and, at Ruth's request, scattered her ashes, mixed with flowers, over the waters surrounding her beloved Islesboro. ELTC Notes from THE POE MYSTERIES Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is considered the creator of the modern detective story, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle credits him with influencing his own Sherlock Holmes creation. The word “detective” was created by Poe. Born in Boston and an orphan by age three, Poe was sent to live with John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant in Richmond, VA. He attended the University of Virginia, but Allan didn’t give him enough money to cover expenses, so Poe was forced to leave. At 18, Poe published his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane, and attended West Point. After being expelled from this academy, his aunt Maria Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, invited Poe into their Baltimore home. He married Virginia, and became an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger. From 1837-1847, Poe, Virginia and Maria lived in Philadelphia and NYC. In 1842, Virginia contracted tuberculosis. Two years later, Poe became an editor for The Evening Mirror, and when this magazine published “The Raven,” Poe finally received the fame he sought, but Virginia was growing worse. In 1847, at age 24, she died, and Poe was devastated. For the next two years, Poe gave lectures and sought backers to start a new magazine. While traveling between Richmond to Philadelphia, he stopped in Baltimore. He was found, unconscious, in the bar room of a public house that was being used as a polling station for a local election, and was taken to a hospital where he died. Poe never regained consciousness and the cause of his death remains a mystery. ELTC Notes on Megrue and Hackett who wrote IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE Roi Cooper Megrue (1883-1927), born and raised in NYC, worked for Elisabeth Marbury, a well-known theatrical and literary agent, before becoming a successful playwright. His first major success, Under Cover (1914) involved jewelry smuggling and U.S. Customs agents, good guys, and bad, played against the backdrop of High Society. Under Fire (1915), Potash and Perlmutter in Society (1915), Under Sentence and Tea for Three (1918) followed. His 1916 comedy, Seven Chances, was made into a film directed by and starring Buster Keaton in 1925. The film was remade in 1999 with the title The Bachelor starring Chris O’Donnell and Renee Zellweger. ELTC, along with the Cape May Film Society, showed the classic Keaton film in September, accompanied by live organ music written and performed by Wayne Zimmerman. (Our next Silent Film Classic is Nosferatu on October 14, and, again, Wayne will be playing his own score on the organ.) Megrue directed and co-produced Jesse Lynch Williams’ Why Marry? in 1917; the first play to win the Pulitzer Prize. ELTC produced Why Marry? in 2006, bringing it back in 2007 due to its popularity. ELTC’s production was the first time this comedy had been produced in eighty years. Walter C. Hackett (1876-1944) born in Oakland, California, was successful in a variety of ways in the entertainment industry. His play Regeneration, written with Owen Frawley Kildare based on Kildare’s book, My Mamie Rose, was made into a film in 1915 directed by Raoul Walsh. In 2000, Regeneration was selected for preservation by The Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” It’s about a young man’s rise from poverty to becoming a crime boss. Two other plays were made into British films in the 1930s: Freedom of the Seas, about war, and Hyde Park Corner, about a policeman investigating a current crime that has its origins in the 1780s. Hackett married Marion Lorne, who grew up in Pennsylvania, and began performing on Broadway in 1905. They moved to England where they built The Whitehall Theatre, designed by Edward Stone. From its opening in 1930 with The Way to Treat a Woman, through 1934, most of the plays were written by Hackett, starring his wife. In 2004, the theater was redesigned and is now called Trafalgar Studios. When Hackett died in 1944, Lorne moved back to America where she resumed her Broadway career in hits like Harvey. Her film debut was in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) playing Robert Walker’s mother. Television roles soon followed, and it was her perplexed witch, Aunt Clara, on Bewitched that gave her well-deserved fame towards the end of a long and respected career. It earned her an Emmy in 1968, accepted on her behalf by Elizabeth Montgomery. Marion Lorne had died from a heart attack a few months before. Notes from ELTC's production of HE AND SHE Rachel Crothers played a major role in American theater as a playwright, performer, director, producer, and philanthropist. Born in 1878 in Bloomington, Illinois, the youngest of seven children, she began writing, performing in and producing her own plays at age twelve, much to the amusement of family and friends. Her father was a doctor, and her mother, who began studying medicine after the age of forty, became a practicing physician as well. Many of Crothers’ plays, filled with warmth, humor, and wit, involve educated, working women. Beginning with her first successful Broadway play, The Three of Us in 1906, she had a Broadway hit almost every season for the next thirty years, many of which she also directed and produced. Several of her plays were adapted into films, including her 1936 Broadway success, Susan and God. The 1940 movie was directed by George Cukor, starring Joan Crawford and Fredric March. He and She was first tried out on the road during the fall of 1911. It was renamed The Herfords and began a run on February 5, 1912 at The Plymouth Theatre in Boston. After more revisions, Crothers produced the play and played the role of Ann at the Little Theatre in New York, beginning in February, 1920, again under the title of He and She. In 1917, shortly before the United States entered World War I, seven women in the theatrical profession, including Crothers, formed the Stage Women’s War Relief. This organization created clothing and food collection centers, a canteen on Broadway for servicemen, sent entertainers to perform for the troops, and most significantly, organized speakers, trained by the organization, to sell Liberty Bonds. The Stage Women's War Relief became one of the most significant and active relief organizations in the world, raising almost seven million dollars. After the end of the war, Crothers and her comrades continued their activities, and in 1920, men in the theater business formed a brother committee to work with the women on behalf of the civilian population still recovering from the hardships of the war. On April 25, 1939, Crothers was awarded the Chi Omega sorority national achievement award by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. This award is given “to an American woman of notable accomplishments in the professions, public affairs, art, letters, business and finance, or education.” At the same time, the United States government asked Crothers to reactivate her committee, which she did, titling it “The American Theatre Wing.” During the two years before the United States entered the War, the Wing gave $81,760.00 in civilian aid to Britain. The forty-three members of the executive board was a "Who's Who" of the theater community. Rachel Crothers served as president; Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes and Vera Allen served as vice-presidents; and Josephine Hull was treasurer. Antoinette Perry served as both chairman of the board and secretary. Male board members included Gilbert Miller, Brooks Atkinson, George S. Kaufman, Raymond Massey, Brock Pemberton, Billy Rose, Lee Shubert, Max Gordon and Vinton Freedley. Many of the Wing’s most famous activities included the legendary Stage Door Canteen and the selling of Liberty Bonds. Crothers remained the Executive Director until 1950. Today, The American Theater Wing is best known for partnering with The Broadway League in presenting the Tony Awards. Rachel Crothers died in her Danbury, Connecticut home on July 5, 1958. Notes from ELTC's production of THE DICTATOR Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916) dined with Ethel Barrymore; fished with Joseph Jefferson; and Charles Dana Gibson sketched him alongside his “Gibson” girls. He was the son of two writers. His mother, Rebecca Harding Davis, wrote the first book on the evils of the iron mills, and his father, Lemuel Clark Davis, was a journalist and editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Richard himself was a well-known journalist and is even referred to in the 1928 Broadway comedy The Front Page. He covered everything from the Johnstown Flood to World War I, and it was his account of the Battle of San Juan Hill that helped Theodore Roosevelt to the Presidency. He wrote short stories, books, and more than a dozen Broadway plays, The Dictator being the most successful. Like many of his stories and plays, it was adapted into a silent film, and in 1939 was slated to be turned into a talkie at the same time Charlie Chaplin’s The Dictator began filming. Harding’s Dictator was not made after all, but Chaplin renamed his film The Great Dictator so as not to cause too much confusion if the two were released at the same time. When Gayle Stahlhuth first produced The Dictator in 2001, it had not been staged in 76 years. Notes from ELTC's production of DULCY (ELTC also produced TO THE LADIES! by Kaufman and Connelly and THE BUTTER AND EGG MAN written by Kaufman.) George S. Kaufman (1889-1961) was the drama editor for “The New York Times” and Marc Connelly (1890-1980) was the Broadway reporter for the “Morning Telegraph,” when they met in 1919. Both men were born in Pennsylvania, Kaufman in Pittsburg and Connelly in McKeesport; were members of the Algonquin Round Table; had written for the stage before working together; and earned Pulitzer Prizes. Dulcy, based on a character from Franklin P. Adams’ “New York Tribune” column, and was written for the rising star, Lynn Fontanne. Their next comedy, two years later, To the Ladies!, was a vehicle for another up-and-coming actress, Helen Hayes. They collaborated on six more shows through 1924: The ‘49ers, West of Pittsburgh, Merton of the Movies, Helen of Troy, New York, Beggar on Horseback and Be Yourself. After Be Yourself, a musical, with lyrics contributed by Ira Gershwin, the two men, creatively, went their separate ways. Connelly continued writing plays and screenplays, but also worked as a producer, director, and actor. His best known solo work is The Green Pastures, adapted from Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun, a collection of folk tales compiled by Roark Bradford, based on the Old Testament. The 1930 production featured an all African-American cast and garnered Connelly the Pulitzer Prize. His last Broadway success was The Farmer Takes a Wife, written with Frank Elser. From 1946-1950, he taught playwriting at Yale. Connelly published two books: A Souvenir from Qam (1965) and Voices Offstage: A Book of Memoirs about the Algonquin Round Table era (1968). Kaufman became America’s most successful playwright in the 1920s and ‘30s. He collaborated with Dorothy Parker (Business is Business); Edna Ferber (Dinner at Eight, The Royal Family, Stage Door); Ring Lardner (June Moon); Morrie Ryskind (Animal Crackers); Moss Hart (Once in a Lifetime, The Man Who Came to Dinner); and Howard Teichmann (The Solid Gold Cadillac). He directed many of his plays, as well as the works of others, including the original The Front Page and Guys and Dolls. Kaufman received two Pulitzer Prizes. In 1931, it was for Of Thee I Sing, with Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin, the first musical to be so honored, and with Moss Hart in 1937 for You Can’t Take It With You. In 2004, The Library of America, an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1979, published Kaufman and Co.: Broadway Comedies, the most comprehensive collection of his plays ever assembled. When Dulcy was written and first produced, the only films were silent, with some of the dialogue written out on storyboards. One of the characters in Dulcy gives the plot for a film that is a direct spoof of what many consider to be the finest silent film ever made: D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916). It was also subtitled A Sun-Play of the Ages or Loves Struggles through the Ages. The first full-length talking feature was The Jazz Singer in 1927. Notes from ELTC's THE WORLD OF DOROTHY PARKER Dorothy Rothschild Parker was born on August 22, 1893 when her family was visiting the Jersey Shore town of West End (near Long Branch), and was raised in Manhattan. Not happy with school, Dorothy stopped going at age fourteen. In 1915, her poem “Any Porch” was published by “Vanity Fair,” which led to a ten-dollar-a-week job writing captions at its sister publication, “Vogue.” Soon, her poems were published regularly in “Vogue,” “Vanity Fair,” and “Life.” She even began reviewing Broadway shows for “Vanity Fair,” and in a review about Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy wrote, “She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.” In June, 1917, Dorothy married Edward Pond Parker II, a handsome stockbroker. He went to France to serve in the First World War. When he returned, his drinking problem had heightened, and by 1920, Dorothy and Eddie were living separate lives. They finally divorced in 1928. Alexander Woollcott, who reported for “The New York Times,” returned from France where he had worked for the military newspaper, “Stars and Stripes.” In June 1919 to celebrate his return, thirty-five writers and publishers gathered for lunch at The Algonquin Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Those present included another former “Star and Stripes” staffer, Harold Ross. This was the beginning of the regularly scheduled luncheons for the group that formed The Algonquin Round Table aka the “Algonks.” Members included Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood, Heywood Broun, Frank Adams, George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, and Dorothy. When Harold Ross started publishing “The New Yorker” in 1925, she found another home for much of her work, and from 1927-1933, was the magazine’s book reviewer, using the byline “Constant Reader.” Her first book, Enough Rope, released in December 1926, was a critical success. Two more collections of her verses followed: Sunset Gun in 1928 and Death and Taxes in 1931. “Big Blonde,” first published in Seward Collins’s “Bookman” in February 1929, won the O. Henry competition for the best short story that year. In 1934, Dorothy married Alan Campbell, and they moved to Hollywood to write screenplays: Campbell receiving $250 a week, and Dorothy a $1,000 a week – and this was during The Great Depression. They worked on such pictures as Hitchcock’s Sabateur and were nominated for two Academy Awards: A Star is Born in 1937 and Little Foxes in 1941. She continued writing fiction for “The New Yorker,” and for five years, wrote book reviews for “Esquire.” She died on June 7, 1967, leaving her estate of a bit more than $20,000, and all rights to her work, to Dr. Martin Luther King. Upon the death of Dr. King, as per Dorothy’s wishes, the rights became the property of the NAACP. In 1988, the NAACP created a memorial garden for Dorothy in which her ashes now have a home. It is located outside the NAACP’s Baltimore headquarters. The first edition of The Portable Dorothy Parker, edited by Parker, appeared in 1944, and was selected by Alexander Woollcott as the fourth in a series of volumes intended for soldiers overseas. It has never been out of print.
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BIOGRAPHIES and NOTES FOR 2013
Lost on the Natchez Trace: Cast, Playwright, Designer
*Gayle Stahlhuth (Artistic Director/Director ) has performed off-Broadway (Manhattan Theatre Club, etc.) in national tours (Cabaret, Fiddler, etc.), regional theater (Gateway Playhouse in Long Island, etc.), television (various soaps, etc.), radio (jingles and Voice of America), and on the Chautauqua Circuit. As a playwright and performer, she’s been awarded commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, the Missouri and Illinois Humanities Councils, Theatreworks/USA and other theaters, and grants from the NJ Humanities Council, the NYS Council on the Arts, and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. Since becoming ELTC’s Artistic Director in 1999, she has produced 70 different shows (some returned for another season), including 17 world premieres and 9 New Jersey premieres, and directed 39 of them. She is an Active Member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG/AFTRA, and is in her 40th year as a member of Actors’ Equity Association. *Lee O’Connor (Technical Director/Stage Manager) served in Vietnam, first in the field, and then on stage in Saigon as part of an Army theater troupe. He’s worked as an actor, stage manager, lighting and set designer, and on construction crews. He began stage managing for ELTC in the mid-‘80s. NYC credits include: A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden Theatre, Liza Steppin’ Out at Radio City, running lights for Pageant, stage managing for Irish Repertory Theatre, The Staten Island Ballet, and Dancers Over 40 Special Events, and was prop master for Penn and Teller Rot in Hell. Regionally, he’s worked at Ivoryton Playhouse, American Stage Company, Centenary Stage, Bickford Theater, The Women's Theater Company, and Surflight and was road manager for the New Jersey Ballet. Marion T. Brady (Costume Designer) is a resident of Little Falls, NJ. She has costumed many productions for ELTC including Berkeley Square, Rain, and He and She, for which Terry Teachout favorably commented on her work as well as the whole production in “The Wall Street Journal.” Other theaters where she has worked include Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck), Montclair Dramatic Club, Union County College Theater Project, The Nutley Little Theatre, and Meadowlands Theater Company. For her 15+ years of costuming for ELTC, Marion was a recipient of ELTC’s 2010 New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s Applause Award.
The Adaptor of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Writer Washington Irving
Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783 in New York City, the eleventh child of Scottish-English immigrants, William and Sarah Irving. Named after the hero of the recently concluded American Revolution, he attended George Washington’s presidential inauguration in 1789. His father, a successful merchant, provided him with a good education, hoping he would be a lawyer, but Irving preferred to attend plays, daydream, and write. Bouts of ill health sent Irving to a spa in Bordeaux, France in 1804, and he stayed on the Continent for two years, learning French, traveling through Europe, writing whimsical letters and essays. Returning to the States in 1806 to take the bar exam, he barely passed it, which didn't bother him. He became a ringleader, of sorts, of a group known as the Lads of Kilkenny, literary-minded young men who enjoyed going to the Park Theater and the Shakespeare Tavern. Several of them, including Irving, his brother William, and James Kirke Paulding, created a semi-monthly periodical called The Salmagundi Papers. It was a comic look at politics and events of the day in “the thrice renowned and delectable city of Gotham” – the first time Manhattan was so called and years before the Batman comics. An old Anglo-Saxon term for “city of goats,” Irving used it more for a “city of tricksters and fools.” In 1809, Irving coined another name, “Knickerbocher,” that would be used to refer to those living in and from Manhattan, with his fictional character “Diedrich Knickerbocker.” He created the name based on the loose fitting pants gathered just below the knee that were a popular men’s style of the day. His first book, A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty is narrated and supposedly written by "Diedrich Knickerbocker." The book was successful at home and in Europe, bringing Irving to the attention of the likes of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott. He served as a military secretary during the War of 1812, and in 1815, joined his brothers, who were merchants, in England. When their company was failing and funds were needed, he pulled his stories together that had been printed in American between 1819-1820 under his pseudonym “Geoffrey Crayon,” to create The Crayon Papers and The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. Among the stories and essays in these books were “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Again, Europeans applauded his work, and Irving began his advocacy for stronger laws to protect writers from copyright infringement, especially between different countries. In 1822, he moved to Germany, then France, and wrote Bracebridge Hall or The Humorists, A Medley, and Tales of a Traveler, which includes another of his well-known stories, “The Devil and Tom Walker.” From 1826-1828, he was attache at the U.S. embassy in Madrid, and from 1829-1832, secretary of the U.S. legation in London. Meanwhile, he wrote The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, and Tales of the Alhambra. Returning to America in 1832, he bought a farm on the banks of the Hudson River near Tarrytown, NY, and named it “Sunnyside.” He returned to Spain from 1842-1846 as the U.S. ambassador, but other than that, his trips abroad were over, and he was content living and writing and receiving family and friends in his country home. In 1859, a book that he’d been working on for many years was published: a five-volume Life of George Washington. Later that year, on November 28, Washington Irving died and was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, near the Old Dutch Church in Tarrytown.
The Cast and Notes for Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Norwood Builder
SHERLOCK HOLMES ON THE AIR The first time a Sherlock Holmes adventure was heard on the airways was October 20, 1930. The Holmes tale was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Speckled Band, adapted by Edith Meiser. Meiser proposed the idea for a Holmes radio show to NBC. At first they passed on the idea for lack of a sponsor, so Meiser found one: G. Washington Coffee. Doyle died during the summer of 1930, but his estate entrusted the development of the series to Meiser and NBC. Meiser, also an actress, wrote the series single-handedly for a dozen years, and with help through most of the 1940s. No audiences were allowed during the early broadcasts. Famous actor/playwright William Gillette, at age 77, starred in the radio show’s premiere. It was he who had created the first stage adaptation based on the writings of Doyle in 1899, under the title Sherlock Holmes. Although he’d played the role over 1,000 times, he was uncomfortable with the radio format. Clive Brook replaced him for the next two performances. Richard Gordon played the role from November 10, 1930 through May of 1933, and again in 1936. Leigh Lovell and Harry West played Dr. Watson. From 1939 to 1946, Holmes and Watson were played by Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. At the same time, they played these roles in 16 films. The Sherlock Holmes radio series continued through 1950.
SEVERAL OTHER ACTORS WHO HAVE PERFORMED WITH ELTC (since 2010)
*John K. Alvarez was in ELTC's The Dictator and for two decades, has had a professional career in the theater. For 17 seasons, John worked at Cape May Stage in the capacity of stage manager, actor, techie, associate producer and whatever other title he was given in lieu of payment. He is also a published playwright and was a columnist for "The Cape May Star & Wave." John teaches Theatre History and Acting at Atlantic County Community College and writes, directs and performs for Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities. Erin Callahan made her ELTC debut in You and I as Veronica Duane and has since been in Berkeley Square and Dulcy. Other credits include Fifth of July with the Michael Chechov Theater Company (NYC), King Lear with Marin Shakespeare Co., Romeo and Juliet with Oxford Shakespeare Co., The Two Noble Kinsmen where she performed both in NYC and London's Hyde Park, The Third Witch and Son of Macduff in the theatrical dance film/documentary of Macbeth called Tango Macbeth with New Harmony Productions, and Midsummer Night’s Dream with What Dreams May Com-Pany. Emily Cheney played Ruth in He and She and Kate Pettigrew in Berkeley Square for ELTC. Born and raised in NJ, she is a graduate of Rowan University and has performed with companies throughout the region. She was most recently seen in the World Premiere of The Bridge Club at Society Hill Playhouse in Philadelphia. Other credits include shows for the Walnut Street Theater, EgoPo Productions, the Delaware Shakespeare Festival, and Storybook Musical Theatre.
*Larry Daggett made his ELTC debut in Dulcy. New York credits include Ragtime (original Broadway cast), Candide (New York City Opera), Red, Hot, and Cole (National Tour). Regional credits include Damn Yankees (Applegate), My Fair Lady (Doolittle/Pickering), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Quince), Follies (Benjamin Stone), Amadeus (Salieri cover), Sunset Boulevard (Max von Mayerling), A Little Night Music (Fredrick Egerman), Levant By Levant (Oscar Levant), H.M.S. Pinafore (Captain Corcoran), Oliver! (Fagin), Seussical (Cat in the Hat), Man of La Mancha (Dr. Carrasco), Annie (Rooster) at theatres which include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arkansas Repertory, Asolo Theatre, Barrington Stage, Capital Repertory, Cleveland Play House, Fulton Opera House, Goodspeed Opera House, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Music Theatre of Connecticut, New Harmony Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Sierra Repertory, Virginia Musical Theatre, among others.
Rachel Handler made her ELTC debut in Berkeley Square. She hails from South Jersey and she is a recent graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton. Previous credits include; Marian in The Music Man, Laurey in Oklahoma!, Angel in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and most recently she was seen performing with Kelli O’Hara in The Best of Lerner and Loewe at Carnegie Hall. *Brad Heikes played Brooke Travers aka "Steve" in ELTC's The Dictator. Broadway: Pygmalion (w/ Claire Danes and Jefferson Mays). Other New York credits include: Mister Roberts (w/ Alec Baldwin and Robert Sean Leonard) at Roundabout and The Battle at Nong Son at The Actors Studio. Some Regional credits: Buddy's Tavern and Glimmerglass world premieres at SBT; Magnetic North at Act II Playhouse; Noises Off! at Cohoes Music Hall (Frederick Fellowes). Brad made a short film about being involved in Pygmalion called Above Broadway. Dave Holyoak was in ELTC’s recent He and She and Dulcy. Other credits include Mark Twain's Is He Dead? (Agamemnon Buckner) and Claudia Shear's Dirty Blonde (Charlie Conner) at the Civic Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan. * Michael Kirby played Peter Standish in ELTC's Berkeley Square. His New York Credits include: Epicene (re:Directions) Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet (Hip to Hip) Regional: The School of Night (Mark Taper Forum), The American Plan, Romeo and Juliet, Merry Wives of Windsor, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Alls Well That Ends Well, Othello (Old Globe) A Tale of Charles Dickens (La Theatre Works) Romeo and Juliet (Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival), Hamlet (Curtis Theatre) Other: Chekhov x 4 (Antaeus) Spite for Spite, Don Juan (Siglo De Oro Festival with Andak Stage Company, Founding Member) Twelfth Night (The Company Rep) Film: Connected, Benevolence, Passing Normal, Chase The Slut Television: Boston Public, MTV, Education: MFA from The Old Globe/USD, BA in theatre from Cal State Fullerton, LAMDA. Ashley Kowzun played Daisy Herford in ELTC's He and She. She is a graduate from Montclair State University. Some of her past credits include Cabaret (Frauline Schneider), Romeo & Juliet (Nurse), Barenaked Lads, Crucible (Mercy), Radium Girls (Mrs. Reoder), Blues Clues (Tickety Tock), Twelfth Night, Jack & the Beanstalk, workshops with Madison’s Young Playwrights, and Enchanted April (Lady Caroline) with The Women’s Theater Company in Parsippany, NJ.
*Lorna Lable wrote and performed in Emma Goldman: My Life for ELTC. She was a professional modern dancer with the well-known Ruth Currier and Eleo Pomare Dance Companies, and for four years managed her own troupe, The Lorna Lable Dance Company. As a dancer, she performed in such venues as Lincoln Center and City Center in NYC. As an actor, she performed her one-woman show, The Door is Mine, a positive look at divorce, along the East Coast from Vermont to Pennsylvania. Her film credits include The Wiz and Keeping the Faith with Ben Stiller. Her commercials run the gamut from selling hams to phones. Lorna’s enjoyed working on all NYC-based soaps from Edge of Night to All My Children and all the versions of Law & Order. You might have seen her as Helga in Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral in NYC at the Soho Theatre or Mrs. Bendle in Not in Our Town at Manhattan Theatre Club, or other shows in NYC and in regional theater. Robert LeMaire has appeared in ELTC’s productions of Sherlock Holmes, Three Miraculous Soldiers, Anna Christie, You and I, Helpful Hints, To the Ladies!, The Ransom of Red Chief and the radio-style productions of Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Speckled Band, Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Adventure of the Norwood Builder, and was in the ELTC 2001 and 2010 productions of The Dictator. Other performance work includes Herr Drosselmeyer in Cape May Stage's Nutcracker and in Vistas of Democracy, from NJ Network Public Television's Educational NJ Legacy Series. You may catch his shoulder in the History Channel’s Civil War Terror. *Mark Edward Lang is a native and current New Yorker, but very much at home in Cape May. Favorite roles include Captain Robert Scott in Terra Nova and Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest (Hilton Head Playhouse), The Actor in ELTC’s The Guardsman (with wife Alison J. Murphy), seven roles in the Irish comedy Stones in his Pockets (Open Stage of Harrisburg), Kosti in Welcome Home Marian Anderson (Off-Broadway & tour, including Clinton Presidential Center in Arkansas); and ELTC’s Dulcy, Butter and Egg Man, Why Marry?, The New York Idea, Voice of the City, Jealousy, The Dictator (2001), Four by Four and You and I (Best Actor Jacoby Award, 2007). He’s performed Shakespeare, Moliere, and new works in NYC and 35 states on tour; as well as directing (including ELTC’s Anna Christie), corporate training and teaching workshops. Graduate of Vassar College (Kazan Prize).
*Megan McDermott's ELTC productions include Jean in Why Marry?, Helen in Berkeley Square, various roles in The World of Dorothy Parker, and Dulcy in Dulcy. Recently she was in Act II Playhouse's Time Stands Still.NYC credits include: The Three Sisters, The Erpingham Camp, and Big Love. Regional credits include: The Glass Menagerie, The Importance of Being Earnest, Twelfth Night, Crimes of the Heart, Shakespeare in Hollywood, The Learned Ladies, Amadeus, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, and Spring Awakening. She has also performed at The Wilma Theater, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, EgoPo Productions, Cheltenham Art Center, The Barnstormers, and McCarter Theatre Center.
Derrick McQueen is in ELTC's Paul Robeson through His Words and Music, written by Gayle Stahlhuth. Due to a Dodge Foundation Grant, he was the Playwright in Residence at South Jersey Regional Theatre, where his play I Have Been Said to Possess was produced. Also a songwriter, his songs have appeared in such works as Cape May Stage’s The Trial of Blackbeard the Pirate. As a performer, he was the Narrator in Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Garcin in No Exit, and Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, and has performed with New York Theatre Workshop, Mabou Mines, Totem Pole Playhouse, and Cape May’s Jazz Festival. The characterizations and concerts that he has created based on historical African-Americans, include the journalist Alfred P. Smith, Congressman George White, and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Derrick took part in the Culture Project's X-IMPACT on the GULF production of Voices of the Storm, life stories from the Mississippi Delta and Louisiana from hurricane Katrina. Currently he is studying for ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He is a Ph. D. student at Union Theological Seminary where he is focusing on "Rhetoric and its Performance on Community". *Tiffany-Leigh Moskow played a variety of roles in The World of Dorothy Parker, Lucy Sheridan in The Dictaror, Jane Weston in The Butter and Egg Man and Elsie Beebe in To the Ladies! - all for ELTC. She graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in Acting. International credit: Embedded at the Fringe Festival in Scotland. Regional: Chemical Imbalance; A Jekyll And Hyde Play (twins Calliope and Penelope Throckmortonshire) and Concertina's Rainbow (Concertina) at Caldwell Theatre Company, and Hunchback of Notre Dame (Esmerelda) at Hollywood Playhouse. Tours: The Red Sun and The Green Moon with Syracuse Stage. *Alison J. Murphy's ELTC productions include Dulcy, The Dictator, The New York Idea, Voice of the City, Four by Four, Why Marry?, You and I and The Guardsman. New York credits include Aurora Leigh, Mary of Shippensburg and The Wound of Love. She has also worked with American Stage Company and Shakespeare in the Garden, in productions of Cloud Nine, Elephant Man, Extremities, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Comedy of Errors, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and Twelfth Night. Film: The Love of My Life (Frank Faralli, director). She performs in corporate training and events in the NYC area, and teaches acting workshops with her husband Mark Edward Lang. * Morgan Nichols was in ELTC's Berkely Square, The Butter and Egg Man, and To the Ladies! He’s a NYC-based actor, who has been seen in a number of shows all around the country, as well as in film and commercial work from coast to coast. Some of his favorites roles include George in Once in a Lifetime, Eddie in Our Lady of 121st Street, Jim Morrison in 27th Heaven and Miles Horton in The Rosa Parks Story. He also has a BFA in Performance Theater from Adelphi University and an Associates Degree in film from The School for Film and Television in Manhattan. *Lee O’Connor served in Vietnam, first as a grunt, and then on stage in Saigon as part of an Army theater troupe. His NYC technical credits include: A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden Theatre, Liza Steppin’ Out at Radio City, running lights for Pageant, stage managing for Irish Repertory Theatre, The Staten Island Ballet, and Dancers Over 40 Special Events, and was prop master for Penn and Teller Rot in Hell. Regionally, he has worked at Ivoryton Playhouse, American Stage Company, Centenary Stage, The Bickford Theater, and The Women's Theater Company. He was road manager for CORE Ensemble, Jose Melina, and NJ Ballet. He and his wife, Gayle, live in West Cape May and Manhattan. *Molly O'Neill portayed Anne Herford in ELTC's He and She. Molly is a recent graduate of the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA Acting Program where she performed the roles of Yelena in Uncle Vanya, Miranda in The Tempest, and Queen Marie in Exit the King, among others. She is a founding member of Broken Box Mime Ensemble in NYC.
Thomas Raniszewski graduated Rowan University (formerly Glassboro State College) with a BA in music. and is a composer and performer. His album, A Midnight at a Time, was nominated Outstanding New Recording at the 2004 Outmusic Awards, and one of the tracks, "Dreams of the Summertime," won the Stonewall Society 2004 Pride in the Arts Award. The album's Christmas track, "Through a Child's Eyes." was released as a single in partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, raising funds and awareness for this organization. He co-produced the album I Hear on the Streets which benefits New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth in NYC. His music is available through iTunes, Amazon.com and CDbaby.com. Several ELTC shows include Rain and Berkeley Square. He recently received critical acclaim as Warren in the Philadelphia premier of the award-winning play The Twentieth-Century Way. *Clifford Rivera, who was in ELTC' The Dictator, liives and works out of New York City and is a veteran of the US Navy. Off Broadway: DeNovo, Lil Silent, Tony and Tina's Wedding, FireHouse. Off-Off Broadway: Boots, A Gown for his Mistress, Arms and the Man. Regional: Macbeth, Hamlet, Into the Woods, Desire Under the Elms, How I learned to Drive. Television credits include: Rescue Me, Mercy, Kings, Lipstick Jungle, All My Children. Training: University Central Florida (BFA), American Academy of Dramatic Arts, The New York Conservatory, Royal Shakespeare Company (Classical).
*Drew Seltzer was in ELTC’s Dulcy, Berkeley Square, Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle and The World of Dorothy Parker. Other stage credits include roles at Princeton Repertory Theater Company, Six Figures Theater Company at the West End, Miles Square Theater Company, Hedgerow Theater, and the Obie and Drama Desk award-winning Les Freres Corbusier where he performed in The Franklin Thesis directed by 2011 Tony-nominated Alex Timbers. The production was voted "Best of New York" by “The Village Voice.” For four years, Drew was with the Off-Broadway production of Tony n' Tina's Wedding. Film credits include Men Who Stare at Goats, The Good Shepherd, and the lead in the upcoming feature Leaving Circadia opposite Michael Cerveris. He received his BFA in Theater from Rutgers University (Mason Gross), has studied improv at Second City, and Shakespeare at The Globe Theater in London under the artistic direction of Mark Rylance.
Susan Tischler wrote and performs Helpful Hints for ELTC. She is the co-owner of Kaleidoscope and Just for Laughs on the Washington Street Mall in Cape May,NJ and is the editor of "Cape May Magazine" and "CapeMay.com." Her reminiscence of her father, Fred Brown, a coal miner from Pittsburgh, was included in the late Tim Russert’s book Wisdom of Our Fathers, published in 2006. *Fred Velde is a native New Yorker and has been part of the New York theater scene for over thirty years. He has been a member of The Harbor Theatre since 1995 and is currently a member of The Workshop Theater. His theatre credits include The Price of Genius on Broadway, Sex by Mae West, Off-Broadway, and Traveling Souls in Moscow as a member of The Phoenix Ensemble. For ELTC, he played Mr. Forbes in Dulcy, Dr. McPhail in Rain, Chris in Anna Christie, and Dr Watson in The Copper Beeches, The Speckled Band, and The Blue Carbuncle. As well as theater, he has appeared in film, soaps, Comedy Central and commercials. He is a member of AEA, SAG and AFTRA.
*John Cameron Weber from New Jersey, was in ELTC’s productions of It Pays to Advertise, He and She, The World of Dorothy Parker, The Dictator, The Butter and Egg Man,and the staged reading of Henry Sawyer and the Civil War. He has spent the last twenty years performing in National (Damn Yankees, 1776) and European (West Side Story, Guys and Dolls) tours. He has worked in various regional theaters and summer stock, commercials, and soaps (As the World Turns, etc.). Recent roles, other than ELTC, include General Waverly in White Christmas and Murray the Cop in The Odd Couple.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Gabrielle Wilson is a junior Theatre Performance major and Arts Administration minor at Rider University. She has been involved in many productions including playing The Clean House), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jekyll and Hyde, Bye Bye Birdie, Oklahoma, Grease, and Hello Dolly. In 2008 and 2009, Gabrielle was nominated for best leading actress and best supporting actress in Paper Mill Playhouse’s Rising Star Program. She is involved in the national theater fraternity Alpha Psi Omega and is a part of the Rider Dance Team and the Arts Administration Association. In 2009, she was crowned Miss Pitman, and has been a judge within the Miss America Association. She was the recipient of ELTC's Historic Jackson Street Scholarship in 2012.
COSTUMER: Marion T. Brady is a resident of Little Falls, NJ. She has costumed many productions for ELTC including Berkeley Square, Rain, and the recent He and She, for which Terry Teachout favorably commented on her work as well as the whole production in “The Wall Street Journal.” Other theaters where she has worked include Fairleigh Dickinson University (Teaneck), Montclair Dramatic Club, Union County College Theater Project, Meadowlands Theater Company, and The Nutley Little Theatre. For her 15+ years of costuming for ELTC, Marion, along with Mark Edward Lang (for his graphic design work), was a recipient of ELTC’s 2010 New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s Applause Award.
Gayle Stahlhuth, Artistic Director, is an actress, playwright, producer, and director who is a member of AEA, SAG/AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild. As such, she has appeared in off-Broadway and in regional theater, television, and on radio; and her plays have been performed at such places as the NYC International Fringe Festival, The Samuel French One-Act Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Arvada Center in Denver, the Pennsylvania Stage Company, and the Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis. In the mid-‘70s she helped to manage a chain of twelve dinner theaters operating out of Charlotte, NC and in 1979 accepted the offer to start a dinner theater in Billings, MT. She performed with ELTC, and from 1987-1997, was on the Board, filling the duties at various times of President, Secretary, and Treasurer. She also acted in several ELTC productions, and founder and artistic director Warren Kliewer directed several of her plays. After Mr. Kliewer’s death in 1998, Gayle accepted the Board of Trustees’ offer, in 1999, to become the next artistic director. As such, she has directed most of ELTC’s productions, including Four by Four, where she combined four one-acts written between 1847-1913 by Louisa May Alcott, William Dean Howells, William Gillette, and Elmer Rice. She tours her own one-woman plays based on Louisa May Alcott, Catharine Beecher, Dorothea Dix, Edna Ferber, “Edna” from The Awakening, “Eve” from the writings of Mark Twain, and her own autobiographical Goin’ Home. She’s been awarded commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, the Missouri Humanities Council, Theatreworks/USA and other theatres, and grants from the New Jersey Humanities Council and the Mid- Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. In the early 1980s, she was a pioneer in the artist-in-residence movement, being one of the first theater professionals to receive a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts in this “new” program designed to put art back into public schools. She is now on The Arts in Education rosters for New York, New Jersey, Utah, and Wyoming. For her work, she was selected to be one of two hundred artists of different disciplines listed in the "Directory of Community Artists" published by the National Endowment for the Arts. Lee O’Connor, Technical Director, served in Vietnam, first in the field, and then on stage in Saigon as part of an Army theater troupe. Back in the States he worked in management for IBM and The American Institute of Banking, before once more returning to the stage, where he’s worked as an actor, stage manager, lighting and set designer; and on construction crews. A member of Actors’ Equity, he began stage managing for The East Lynne Theater Company in the mid-‘80s. NYC credits include: A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden Theatre, a workshop production of an event for Radio City Music Hall, Liza Steppin’ Out at Radio City, running lights for Pageant, stage managing for Irish Repertory Theatre and The Staten Island Ballet, and prop master for Penn and Teller Rot in Hell. Regionally, he has worked at Ocean Professional Theatre Company, Surflight Theatre, Ivoryton Playhouse, American Stage Company, Centenary Stage, The Bickford Theater, and The Women's Theater Company. He was road manager for CORE Ensemble, Jose Melina, and NJ Ballet. BOARD OF TRUSTEES Frank Smith, President of The Board, has been an ELTC Board member since 1994, serving mostly as President during this time. He's a retired Philadelphia Police Detective (1962-1990), and a member of the Fraternal Order of Police. From 1962-1971, he also served on the Pennsylvania National Guard, and from 1975-1980, owned a retail furniture store. He was co-founder of the Pennsylvania Automobile Crime Investigators Association, and developed the Training Programs for Police Agencies from around the Mid-Atlantic Region and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office. In 1990, he purchased The White Dove Cottage B&B in Cape May, which he owned until 2002. He served on the Board of Directors for The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cape May from 1990-2002 (as Treasurer from 1990-1992) and served as Treasurer and President of Historic Accommodations of Cape May from 1990-2002. In 2002, The Cape May County Chamber of Commerce presented him with an award for all of his good works that have helped to the positive growth of Cape May, NJ. Mark Edward Lang, First-Vi ce-President, is a director, actor and graphic/web designer based in New York City. He is also a partner in the Laughingstock Company, which does corporate training and entertainment; an Artistic Associate of the Harbor Theatre Company, which developed new plays; and a B.A. Honors graduate of Vassar College. He conducts theater workshops for ages high school students on up. Carrie O'Sullivan, Secretary/Treasury, earned a B.A. Degree in English and began a career in Human Resource Management. Currently she is the co-owner (with her husband) of a B&B in Cape May. She has served on the Executive Board of the Cape May Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Board of Historic Accommodations of Cape May. Dawn Brautigam holds a degree in Criminal Justice Administration, worked in various departments at Harrah's Atlantic City for over 20 years and currently works in the business office at Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities (MAC). Peg Curran taught school in Pennsylvania and was a museum teacher at Historic Cherry Hill in Albany, NY. Currently she manages and develops rental property in Sea Isle City and Avalon, NJ. Marilyn Foster holds a degree in Liberal Arts and Teaching. Currently retired, she taught special needs children, specializing in those with dyslexia., and was an accountant for Beckman Instruments, an organization that made equipment for NASA. She has organized and run many fund raisers for schools and charities, and has been a motivational speaker at various programs. Now living in Barnegat, NJ, Marilyn grew up in Middle Township and has memories of her first live theater experience at the Cape May Playhouse, which she frequented until it burned down. Alison J. Murphy is a New York and New Jersey-based actor who has experience with working with students with special needs. Lee O'Connor (see above) Jim Richards is the Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cape May. He has served churches in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, and Indiana. Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, he now feels truly at home here at the Shore. He is a graduate of Millersville University, with a master in Education from Shippensburg University and a Master of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Before entering the ministry, he taught middle school science, reading, health, and drama outside of Harrisburg, PA. He is married to Jackie Richards, has two daughters, one granddaughter, one grandson, and one granddaughter on the way. Major interests include model railroading, Civil War history, drama, and genealogy.
THE BOARD OF ADVISORS Stephanie Garrett worked as a Sociologist and Human Resources manager during her career in Federal Government. Upon early retirement, she received the Meritorious Service Award, the highest award given by the Department of Navy to a civilian employee. Stephanie is a member of the Greater Cape May Historical Society and served as President. She is also a storyteller, specializing in African-American tales. James V. Hatch is a noted theater historian, particularly in the field of African-American artists. His publications include "Sorrow Is the Only Faithful One: The Life of Owen Dodson," and "Black Theater USA." Clare Juechter is currently the Museum Store Manager at Historic Cold Spring Village in Cape May County, and previously was a regional administrator with Federated Department Stores. Michele LaRue is an actress, writer, and editor. She has performed Off-Broadway and with ELTC as well as other regional theaters. As a well- respected theatre writer and editor, she is a member of Drama Desk, an organization of New York drama critics. Michele was married to and collaborated with Warren Kliewer, the founder and first artistic director of ELTC, onstage and off, for more than 25 years. Walter J. Meserve is a respected theater historian who was one of the editors of the "American Lost Plays" series published by the Indiana University Press, and co-author of "The Musical Theatre Cookbook: Recipes from Best-Loved Musicals." Gayle Stahlhuth (see above) Don B. Wilmeth is Emeritus Professor of Theatre and English at Brown University, who, with Chris Bigsby, edited the three-volume "Cambridge History of American Theatre," the only history of its kind. It received a number of book awards when originally published in 1998-2001 - a publication also co-edited by Don. He also just completed writing/compiling a new edition of the "Cambridge Guide to American Theatre." VOLUNTEERING & BOARD
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*Jan Buttram (playwright) began her professional theatre career as an actress with the New Orleans Repertory Theatre under the direction of June Havoc. She has since acted Off Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, and in regional theatres. Her plays have been produced in New York by the York Theatre, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, Circle Rep Lab, Lightning Strikes Theatre Co., and Abingdon Theatre Company, which introduced her “comedy with hymns,” Glory Girls. Other plays include Zona, the Ghost of Greenbrier, Private Battles, The Parker Family Circus, Phantom Killer, and Lost on the Natchez Trace. Her plays Captive and The Parker Family Circus are published by Samuel French (The Parker Family Circus was selected by Smith & Kraus for "The Best Scenes for Actors of 2001–02"). Her play Texas Homos (directed by Tony® award winner Melvin Bernhardt) was presented on Abingdon’s mainstage and is published by Smith and Kraus in Best New Playwrights of 2005. HX Magazine nominated Texas Homos as the “Best Gay Themed Play of the Season." She received commissions to create original scripts for Capital Rep and Greenbrier Valley Theatre. Her play Backwoods won the 1995 Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays. Her short plays are published in several anthologies by Heineman Books and included in Smith and Kraus' "Best Ten Minute Plays of 2011." A founding member and Artistic Director of Abingdon Theatre Company, a not-for-profit company located in Manhattan dedicated to developing and producing new plays by American playwrights, she has led the company for 19 seasons. She is a University of North Texas graduate.
*James Rana wrote and performed in the ELTC's World Premiere The Poe Mysteries and was in Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Norwood Builder. Off Broadway: Serendib (Ensemble Studio Theatre),Tartuffe, As You Like It (Worth Street Theatre), Rangoon, Shogun Macbeth (Pan Asian Rep), Marat/Sade, Macbeth, Mother Courage (Classical Theatre of Harlem), On The Rocks, Passion Play and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (Project Shaw). International: Love’s Labor's Lost (Royal Shakespeare Company), Macbeth (Globe Neuss, Bonn Biennale). Regional: Contemporary American Theatre Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre, Actors Shakespeare Co., Shakespeare & Company, Princeton Rep, Luna Stage. Film & Television: Law & Order:SVU, Third Watch, One Life To Live, As the World Turns, Radical Islam, Conan O'Brien, The Hollow Tree, The War Within, and A Girl Like You With A Boy Like Me (Accolade Award). Radio: Wrote and narrated Poe: A Celebration (Semifinalist: Moondance International Film Festival) and Going Polar for NPR. Writing: Has Been (Semi-finalist: Outstanding Television Script - LA Comedy Short Film Festival, Los Angeles Screenwriting Competition and Moondance International Film Festival). 
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