POE BY CANDLELIGHT
Actors read their favorite stories by the master of the macabre!
Performers this year are Amanda Brinlee,
Matt Baxter Luceno, and Gayle Stahlhuth
Stories: "Bernice," "The Cask of Amontillado,"
"The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Location: Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May, NJ
Show Date/Time: Saturday, October 29 at 8:00 PM
Tickets: $12; Ages 12 and under free
Performers this year are Amanda Brinlee,
Matt Baxter Luceno, and Gayle Stahlhuth
Stories: "Bernice," "The Cask of Amontillado,"
"The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Location: Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May, NJ
Show Date/Time: Saturday, October 29 at 8:00 PM
Tickets: $12; Ages 12 and under free
Gayle Stahlhuth reads a Poe story, while Lee O'Connor waits, wearing the hooded cape, to read his.
THE CAST
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.
Matt Baxter Luceno ELTC: Arsenic and Old Lace, A Year in The Trenches, Within the Law, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, It Pays to Advertise. NY Theater includes The Winter’s Tale (dir. Everett Quinton), Chemistry of Love (La MaMa E.T.C.), The Merry Wives of Windsor Terrace (Brave New World Rep), The Island of Doctor Moreau, Hamlet (Piper Theatre), Uranus (Superhero Clubhouse), Scapin (Turtle Shell), and staged readings with Red Bull Theater, La MaMa, and The Actors Studio. Regional: Dancing Lessons (ARC Stages – Next Stage), King Lear w/ Stacy Keach, Ion, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Theatre Company), Julius Caesar (Shakespeare on the Sound), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet (Allentown Shakespeare). Television: “Guiding Light”, “Shark Week”. Training: SUNY Purchase Acting Conservatory, BFA (President’s Award). Matt is a former Acting Fellow at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Member AEA. MattBaxterLuceno.com
Gayle Stahlhuth 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. Since becoming ELTC’s Artistic Director in 1999, she has produced over 120 different plays/musicals (some returned for another season), including 21 world premieres and 10 NJ premieres, and directed over half of them. Her adaptations for ELTC include Tales by Twain, that also ran at Surflight Theatre; Spoon River, based on the famous Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, and The Ransom of Red Chief based on O. Henry's classic tale. She’s been awarded commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, the Missouri and Illinois Humanities Councils, and grants from the NJ Humanities Council, the NYS Council on the Arts, and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. For several years she was a judge for the Emmy Awards in the field of broadcasting. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and the League of Professional Women, who honored her in 2016 for her work in theater.
BACKGROUND ON EDGAR ALLAN POE
Photo left is from ELTC's world premiere The Poe Mysteries with Shelly McPherson, Mark Edward Lang, James Rana, Grace Wright, Fred Velde and Thomas Raniszewski. It was adapted by James Rana from three stories by A. E. Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 -1849) – the name alone conjures up mysteries, murder, madmen, and mayhem. He is considered the creator of the modern detective story, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle credits him with influencing his own Sherlock Holmes creation. His works, in print since 1827, include poetry, stories, a novel, essays, and book reviews. His idol was Lord Byron, and by age thirteen, Poe had written enough poetry to publish a book. His teacher and guardian prevented such a publication.
Born in Boston, Poe was the second of three children. His parents, both actors, were dead by the time he was three. The siblings were sent to different homes, with Poe ending up with John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant, and his wife, Frances, in Richmond, Virginia.
In 1826, Poe attended the University of Virginia, even though Allan didn’t give him enough money to cover expenses. He was an excellent student, but turned to gambling to pay for his needs. During his first term, he burned his furniture to keep warm. Poe returned to Richmond to seek financial help from Allan. Not only did he not receive it, but he also learned his fiancée Elmira Royster, was engaged to another man. Eighteen years old, poor and broken-hearted, he was determined to make his own way in the world. He then published his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane, and joined the army.
When Poe was twenty-one, he returned to Richmond upon learning that Frances Allan was dying of tuberculosis. By the time he arrived, the only mother he had really ever known was already in her grave. Although the relationship between Poe and Allan was strained, Allan helped him to get into the United States Military Academy of West Point. Soon after, Allan remarried, and Poe wasn’t invited to the wedding. Once more feeling betrayed, Poe wrote a letter outlining all of Allan’s wrong-doings towards him, and threatened to get himself expelled from West Point. Eight months later, he was expelled.
Fortunately, an aunt, Maria Clemm, and her young daughter, Virginia, invited him in to their Baltimore home. One of his short stories won a contest and he became an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger. Within a year Poe was gaining a reputation as a book critic, which helped to make the Messenger the most popular magazine in the south. Poe married Virginia, who was not yet fourteen.
Meanwhile, Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will. He did, however, provide for an illegitimate child whom Allan had never met. The Allan’s had never legally adopted Poe.
In 1837, believing he had outgrown the Messenger, Poe, Virginia and Maria moved to New York City, but it was difficult to find work at a magazine. Here he wrote his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. The family moved to Philadelphia a year later where he wrote and edited for several different magazines, and was building a reputation. Still, it was difficult for him to make a living. His only “payment” for the publication of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, was twenty-five free copies of his book. In 1842, Virginia contracted tuberculosis, the disease that had killed his mother, brother, and Frances Allan.
The family moved back to New York City in 1844, where he became an editor for The Evening Mirror. When this magazine published “The Raven” a year later, finally, Poe received the fame he’d been seeking. He could now demand more pay for his work and his lectures became exceedingly popular. Two more books were published and finally he was running his own magazine, the Broadway Journal. By 1846, the magazine proved unsuccessful, Virginia was very ill, and rumors spread about Poe having a relationship with a married woman. He moved his family to a small cottage outside the city. Here, in the winter of 1847, at only twenty-four years of age, Virginia died. Poe was devastated and couldn’t write for months.
For the next two years, he traveled from one city to another, giving lectures and seeking backers for another magazine, The Stylus. He met several women along the way. Nancy Richmond in Massachusetts inspired some of his greatest poetry, including “For Annie.” He was engaged to the poet Sarah Helen Whitman in Providence, for a few months. He courted Elmira Royster Shelton when he learned she was a widow, and the two became engaged before he left Richmond for Philadelphia.
Poe stopped in Baltimore on his way to Philadelphia, and disappeared for five days. He was discovered in the bar room of a public house that was being used as a polling station for a local election. Joseph Snodgrass, a magazine editor, had Poe taken to a hospital where he died on October 7, 1849. He never regained consciousness and the cause of his death remains a mystery. Neither Poe’s mother-in-law nor his fiancée knew what had become of him until they read about it in the newspapers.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 -1849) – the name alone conjures up mysteries, murder, madmen, and mayhem. He is considered the creator of the modern detective story, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle credits him with influencing his own Sherlock Holmes creation. His works, in print since 1827, include poetry, stories, a novel, essays, and book reviews. His idol was Lord Byron, and by age thirteen, Poe had written enough poetry to publish a book. His teacher and guardian prevented such a publication.
Born in Boston, Poe was the second of three children. His parents, both actors, were dead by the time he was three. The siblings were sent to different homes, with Poe ending up with John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant, and his wife, Frances, in Richmond, Virginia.
In 1826, Poe attended the University of Virginia, even though Allan didn’t give him enough money to cover expenses. He was an excellent student, but turned to gambling to pay for his needs. During his first term, he burned his furniture to keep warm. Poe returned to Richmond to seek financial help from Allan. Not only did he not receive it, but he also learned his fiancée Elmira Royster, was engaged to another man. Eighteen years old, poor and broken-hearted, he was determined to make his own way in the world. He then published his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane, and joined the army.
When Poe was twenty-one, he returned to Richmond upon learning that Frances Allan was dying of tuberculosis. By the time he arrived, the only mother he had really ever known was already in her grave. Although the relationship between Poe and Allan was strained, Allan helped him to get into the United States Military Academy of West Point. Soon after, Allan remarried, and Poe wasn’t invited to the wedding. Once more feeling betrayed, Poe wrote a letter outlining all of Allan’s wrong-doings towards him, and threatened to get himself expelled from West Point. Eight months later, he was expelled.
Fortunately, an aunt, Maria Clemm, and her young daughter, Virginia, invited him in to their Baltimore home. One of his short stories won a contest and he became an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger. Within a year Poe was gaining a reputation as a book critic, which helped to make the Messenger the most popular magazine in the south. Poe married Virginia, who was not yet fourteen.
Meanwhile, Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will. He did, however, provide for an illegitimate child whom Allan had never met. The Allan’s had never legally adopted Poe.
In 1837, believing he had outgrown the Messenger, Poe, Virginia and Maria moved to New York City, but it was difficult to find work at a magazine. Here he wrote his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. The family moved to Philadelphia a year later where he wrote and edited for several different magazines, and was building a reputation. Still, it was difficult for him to make a living. His only “payment” for the publication of Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, was twenty-five free copies of his book. In 1842, Virginia contracted tuberculosis, the disease that had killed his mother, brother, and Frances Allan.
The family moved back to New York City in 1844, where he became an editor for The Evening Mirror. When this magazine published “The Raven” a year later, finally, Poe received the fame he’d been seeking. He could now demand more pay for his work and his lectures became exceedingly popular. Two more books were published and finally he was running his own magazine, the Broadway Journal. By 1846, the magazine proved unsuccessful, Virginia was very ill, and rumors spread about Poe having a relationship with a married woman. He moved his family to a small cottage outside the city. Here, in the winter of 1847, at only twenty-four years of age, Virginia died. Poe was devastated and couldn’t write for months.
For the next two years, he traveled from one city to another, giving lectures and seeking backers for another magazine, The Stylus. He met several women along the way. Nancy Richmond in Massachusetts inspired some of his greatest poetry, including “For Annie.” He was engaged to the poet Sarah Helen Whitman in Providence, for a few months. He courted Elmira Royster Shelton when he learned she was a widow, and the two became engaged before he left Richmond for Philadelphia.
Poe stopped in Baltimore on his way to Philadelphia, and disappeared for five days. He was discovered in the bar room of a public house that was being used as a polling station for a local election. Joseph Snodgrass, a magazine editor, had Poe taken to a hospital where he died on October 7, 1849. He never regained consciousness and the cause of his death remains a mystery. Neither Poe’s mother-in-law nor his fiancée knew what had become of him until they read about it in the newspapers.
