GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST TROLLEY RIDES:


​​Honoring the Old-Fashioned Pastime of Telling Ghost Stories on Christmas Eve 
Co-Sponsored with Cape May MAC
Weekends from November 18 - December 23
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ELTC continues the Victorian custom of telling ghost stories at Christmastime with Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides. Listen to classic American holiday ghost stories, told (memorized not read) by a costumed performer in a dark trolley, while the twinkling lights of the beautifully decorated homes and streets are seen through the windows of the heated vehicle. Started in 2007, this has become a favorite holiday tradition for many, and tickets quickly sell out. 

The storyteller is Amanda Brinlee, pictured here. The two ghost tales she's telling this time are The Twelfth Guest by Mary Wilkins Freeman and Old Applejoy's Ghost by Frank R. Stockton. In the Freeman tale, a young woman, a stranger, appears in time for Christmas dinner at the Child’s home.  She ends up staying  long enough to right some wrongs, and then suddenly, oddly, disappears.  The Stockton story is about a jolly spirit who convinces his grand niece to persuade her uncle to celebrate Christmas in the mansion the way in which it used to be celebrated.  The stories have been adapted for storytelling by ELTC's producing artistic director, Gayle Stahlhuth. 

The "spirited" thirty-minute rides begin and end at the Washington Street Mall Information Booth. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children, ages 3-12, and run several nights a week, beginning on November 18 and running through December 23.  Reservations are strongly suggested and can be made by calling MAC at 609-884-5404. If tickets are available the day of the tour, they will be sold at the Washington Street Mall Information Booth.   
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​Amanda Brinlee  is a small business owner, stage manager, and performer. Since receiving her Bachelors of Arts in Acting in 2020 from Fairleigh Dickinson, she‘s performed in ELTC’s virtual reading of Something to Vote For; worked backstage and on in Vaudeville Variety, Tales in the Backyard and Poe by Candlelight; Assistant stage-managed Dorothy Parker: A Certain Woman, and assistant directed the 2021 Student Workshop. Recently she staged managed Who Am I This Time? and is the costumed storyteller for “Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides,” an event in partnership with Cape May MAC. When she is not working in theater, she is running her small business, Amanda Brinlee Designs on Etsy, and raising her daughter. Amanda would like to thank ELTC and Gayle, as well as her husband and the rest of her family for their love and support. Member AEA.