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CHRISTMAS PRESENTS
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Schedule
Friday, November 25 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, November 26 at 2:00 PM, Saturday, November 26 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, December 4 at 8:00 PM
Thursday, December 8 at 8:00 PM
Friday, December 9 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, December 10 at 2:00 PM, Saturday, December 10 at 8:00 PM
Location: Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes Street, Cape May, NJ
Tickets: $28; students/military (active/retired/veteran): $20; ages 12 and under free
Friday, November 25 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, November 26 at 2:00 PM, Saturday, November 26 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, December 4 at 8:00 PM
Thursday, December 8 at 8:00 PM
Friday, December 9 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, December 10 at 2:00 PM, Saturday, December 10 at 8:00 PM
Location: Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes Street, Cape May, NJ
Tickets: $28; students/military (active/retired/veteran): $20; ages 12 and under free
"Gayle Stahlhuth is a master storyteller. . . .
Every Christmas, Stahlhuth, who has already spent a year overseeing East Lynne's season and outreach programs, always has one more gift to give– her storytelling. . . .
The whole evening filled me with hope - and ready to put up the decorations."
– from Dottie Knapp's review for Exit Zero
"One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That's all I have, and tomorrow is Christmas," sighed Della in The Gift of the Magi, just one of the stories adapted and performed by Gayle Stahlhuth, who brings to life thirty-plus characters in her memorized, unique tour-de-force storytelling style.
Christmas Presents from the Past is a compilation of several tales. Aside from O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi, in which a loving couple exchange unique gifts, the other tales are The Christmas Masquerade, The Snow Image, and What the Bells Saw and Said. The Christmas Masquerade, written by Mary Wilkins Freeman, is about an unusual costumer. When children don his creations, they behave like the outfit, i.e., pauper’s children dressed as princesses behave like royalty, and banker’s daughters behave like shepherdesses. Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his eerie, supernatural writing style, and The Snow Image is no exception. Did Violet and Sam create a real child out of snow, or was it just their childish imaginations at work? According to Louisa May Alcott’s What the Bells Saw and Said, the spirits of the city’s church bells gather together every Christmas Eve to talk about the past year and their hopes for the next one.
Christmas Presents from the Past is a compilation of several tales. Aside from O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi, in which a loving couple exchange unique gifts, the other tales are The Christmas Masquerade, The Snow Image, and What the Bells Saw and Said. The Christmas Masquerade, written by Mary Wilkins Freeman, is about an unusual costumer. When children don his creations, they behave like the outfit, i.e., pauper’s children dressed as princesses behave like royalty, and banker’s daughters behave like shepherdesses. Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for his eerie, supernatural writing style, and The Snow Image is no exception. Did Violet and Sam create a real child out of snow, or was it just their childish imaginations at work? According to Louisa May Alcott’s What the Bells Saw and Said, the spirits of the city’s church bells gather together every Christmas Eve to talk about the past year and their hopes for the next one.
When asked about her process, Gayle said:
“I spend a great deal of time adapting the tales and committing them to memory, so I can have fun performing them, ever so freely. I compare it to what musicians do when they know a piece of music so well, that they can come up with their own interpretations, and still be true to the original.”
This will be Gayle's final performance at The Cape May Presbyterian Church as Producing Artistic Director of East Lynne Theater Company. Happily, she has other plans for 2023 in Cape May, New York City,
and elsewhere.
“I spend a great deal of time adapting the tales and committing them to memory, so I can have fun performing them, ever so freely. I compare it to what musicians do when they know a piece of music so well, that they can come up with their own interpretations, and still be true to the original.”
This will be Gayle's final performance at The Cape May Presbyterian Church as Producing Artistic Director of East Lynne Theater Company. Happily, she has other plans for 2023 in Cape May, New York City,
and elsewhere.
Gayle Stahlhuth is no stranger to writing and performing one-person shows. Her first one was Lou: The Remarkable Miss Alcott, which premiered at St. Leo University in Florida in 1981. She performed both two-act and one-act versions throughout the country in various theaters, museums (including several times at Alcott’s Orchard House in Concord, MA), and schools, obtaining gigs through her own endeavors and through Arthur Shafman Artists International. The last time she performed Lou was in 2007 as part of ELTC’s Mainstage Season.
Other one-person shows have been based on Catharine Beecher and Edna Ferber, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the writings of Mark Twain, and her own autobiographical Goin’ Home. For her writing and/or performing, she’s been awarded commissions from The 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. This has all led to interesting productions and venues, i.e., The National Portrait Gallery commissioned her to write a play about Dorothea Lynde Dix. Titled Not Above A Whisper, she and her husband, Lee O’Connor, then took the play to a variety of venues sponsored by various mental health associations throughout the country.
She 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 (commercials and Voice of America), and on the Chautauqua Circuit.
Her plays have had staged readings in NYC, and been performed at such places as the NYC International Fringe Festival, The Samuel French One-Act Festival, Arvada Center in Denver, the Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis, Pennsylvania Stage Company, and at several universities.
In the early 1980s, she was a pioneer in the artist-in-residence (AIR) movement to put art back into public schools, and is on the AIR rosters for NY, NJ, UT, and WY. For her work, she was selected as one of only two hundred artists from all arts disciplines to be listed in the "Directory of Community Artists" published by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Throughout the years she has directed-stage managed-designed/set lights-designed/built sets-designed/built costumes for a variety of off-off Broadway shows, NYC cabarets, festivals and touring productions; started a dinner theater in Billings, MT; produced a Medieval Festival at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore; made and rebuilt elephant and llama blankets for Ringling Brothers Circus; been an Emmy Awards’ judge in the field of broadcast news; and worked undercover for white collar crime for a NYC detective agency.
The production of A Year in the Trenches in the fall of 2017, marked her 100th production for ELTC since she became the company’s artistic director in 1999. These productions include 24 world premieres and 10 NJ premieres, and she directed over half of them. Her direction has been praised in “The Philadelphia Inquirer,” “The New York Times,” and “The Wall Street Journal,” as well as in local newspapers.
Gayle served on the board of ELTC from 1987-1997, and at various times was President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. From 1990-2002 she was a Council Member of The Episcopal Actors’ Guild, serving on the Membership Committee, and, at various times, was Chair of the Finance Committee, Secretary, and Treasurer. EAG, founded in 1923, was the first organization to help professional actors, and still continues to do so regardless of religious affiliations. Since 2000, she has served on the board of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, serving on a variety of committees, but mostly with emerging professional theaters throughout the Garden State.
She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors’ Equity Association. The National League of Professional Women honored her in 2016 for her accomplishments as a theater professional.
Other one-person shows have been based on Catharine Beecher and Edna Ferber, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, the writings of Mark Twain, and her own autobiographical Goin’ Home. For her writing and/or performing, she’s been awarded commissions from The 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. This has all led to interesting productions and venues, i.e., The National Portrait Gallery commissioned her to write a play about Dorothea Lynde Dix. Titled Not Above A Whisper, she and her husband, Lee O’Connor, then took the play to a variety of venues sponsored by various mental health associations throughout the country.
She 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 (commercials and Voice of America), and on the Chautauqua Circuit.
Her plays have had staged readings in NYC, and been performed at such places as the NYC International Fringe Festival, The Samuel French One-Act Festival, Arvada Center in Denver, the Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis, Pennsylvania Stage Company, and at several universities.
In the early 1980s, she was a pioneer in the artist-in-residence (AIR) movement to put art back into public schools, and is on the AIR rosters for NY, NJ, UT, and WY. For her work, she was selected as one of only two hundred artists from all arts disciplines to be listed in the "Directory of Community Artists" published by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Throughout the years she has directed-stage managed-designed/set lights-designed/built sets-designed/built costumes for a variety of off-off Broadway shows, NYC cabarets, festivals and touring productions; started a dinner theater in Billings, MT; produced a Medieval Festival at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore; made and rebuilt elephant and llama blankets for Ringling Brothers Circus; been an Emmy Awards’ judge in the field of broadcast news; and worked undercover for white collar crime for a NYC detective agency.
The production of A Year in the Trenches in the fall of 2017, marked her 100th production for ELTC since she became the company’s artistic director in 1999. These productions include 24 world premieres and 10 NJ premieres, and she directed over half of them. Her direction has been praised in “The Philadelphia Inquirer,” “The New York Times,” and “The Wall Street Journal,” as well as in local newspapers.
Gayle served on the board of ELTC from 1987-1997, and at various times was President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer. From 1990-2002 she was a Council Member of The Episcopal Actors’ Guild, serving on the Membership Committee, and, at various times, was Chair of the Finance Committee, Secretary, and Treasurer. EAG, founded in 1923, was the first organization to help professional actors, and still continues to do so regardless of religious affiliations. Since 2000, she has served on the board of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, serving on a variety of committees, but mostly with emerging professional theaters throughout the Garden State.
She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors’ Equity Association. The National League of Professional Women honored her in 2016 for her accomplishments as a theater professional.
