Ken Hornbeck, Rik Walter, Ezra Barnes, Shelley McPherson, Mark Edward Lang
SHERLOCK HOLMES: SCANDALS!
WORLD PREMIERE!
A radio-style performance based on two stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
A Scandal in Bohemia and The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
Adapted and Directed by Mark Edward Lang
ONE WEEK ONLY - Thursday, Friday & Saturday
October 23, 24 & 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Location: ELTC at Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes Street, Cape May, NJ
A radio-style performance based on two stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:
A Scandal in Bohemia and The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
Adapted and Directed by Mark Edward Lang
ONE WEEK ONLY - Thursday, Friday & Saturday
October 23, 24 & 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Location: ELTC at Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes Street, Cape May, NJ
SHERLOCK HOLMES: SCANDALS!, RADIO-STYLE - A BRAND NEW ADAPTATION!
This new adaptation of two of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia," which introduced the infamous character Irene Adler, and “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box,” involving the mystery behind a mysterious package, is presented radio-style at the historic Cape May Presbyterian Church.
Many of you will know the various adaptations of these characters-- famously starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce on film, and more recently Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on television. But the Sherlock Holmes adventures were also presented on the radio in the United States between 1930 and 1950. We continue in the tradition of those classic radio broadcasts.
This new adaptation of two of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia," which introduced the infamous character Irene Adler, and “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box,” involving the mystery behind a mysterious package, is presented radio-style at the historic Cape May Presbyterian Church.
Many of you will know the various adaptations of these characters-- famously starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce on film, and more recently Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on television. But the Sherlock Holmes adventures were also presented on the radio in the United States between 1930 and 1950. We continue in the tradition of those classic radio broadcasts.
BIOS
MARK EDWARD LANG* (Playwright, Director, Misc Roles) directed this season's production of Dear Jack, Dear Louise. He is also the author and co-star of the biographical plays Zelda & Scott: A Life Affair (NJ, NYC and at the Fitzgerald Museum in Alabama) and Lunt and Fontanne: The Celestials of Broadway, which has been presented in New York (the NY International Fringe Festival, Stage Left Studio) and at the Classic Theatre (San Antonio, Texas). Regional theater credits include many shows with ELTC; recent work there includes Possessing Harriet (director), Who Am I This Time?, Biography, Zorro!, The Guardsman (opposite his wife, Alison J. Murphy), Why Marry? and Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie (also director). Other regional theater includes lead and featured roles in Ted Tally’s drama Terra Nova (Captain Scott), The Importance of Being Earnest (Jack), Stones in his Pockets and Welcome Home, Marian Anderson (Off-Broadway and tour). Member AEA, SAG-AFTRA and The Dramatists Guild.
EZRA BARNES* (Holmes) at East Lynne; Dial M for Murder, A Tale of Two Cities, Love Letters, and Sherlock in The Death of Sherlock Holmes. Off Broadway: Breakfast With Mugabe (Signature), To Kill a Mockingbird (Queens Theatre), In White America (New Federal), Far and Wide (Mint). Regional credits include Sherlock in The Final Adventure at Portland Stage. TV: Group, New Amsterdam, Jessica Jones, Orange is the New Black, The Sinner, Law & Order, SVU. Film: The Last Day, Motherless Brooklyn, Unintended, Noah, Joshua. Directed Diary of Anne Frank (Playhouse on Park; Outstanding Director award, Connecticut Critics Circle). Founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare on the Sound. Runs Brooklyn’s Young Actors Workshop.
SHELLEY McPHERSON* (Irene Adler / Miss Cushing / Sarah) is thrilled to return to ELTC, where she has performed many times, in plays including The Poe Mysteries and Why Marry? In NYC she has appeared at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, Birdland, and New York Theatre Workshop. TV and film include Guiding Light and Fall Before Paradise. Toronto appearances include multiple performances at Koerner Hall, and she can be heard on Toronto Sings the Breithaupt Brothers Songbook, recorded at Soulpepper Theatre Company. Her plays have been developed at York Theatre Company and The Classical Theatre of Harlem. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA.
RIK WALTER* (Watson) was a co-founder and tireless work-horse of ‘FringeNYC’, the largest international multi-arts festival in North America for the better part of 20 years. For over 30 years Rik has been an advocate for the arts and culture of his Northern Manhattan neighborhood, having served on the board of Pied Piper's Children's Theatre, and co-founding UP Theater Company—developing new work since 2010. He is particularly proud of his recurring role as “Richard Diamond" on UP’s old radio play YouTube channel, @uptheatercompany. When not acting on stage or TV, Rik is a professional skills coach. Vero nihil veritas. www.rikwalter.com
KEN HORNBECK* (Stage Manager / Misc. Roles) moved to Cape May from Atlanta three years ago, and feels very much at home here. He is excited to be returning to the Sherlock Holmes radio plays again this season. Ken has appeared in both productions of The Jersey Lawman, and has served as ELTC stage manager for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. His lifelong passion has been working with children, teens and young adults. As a director of programs in New York City and Atlanta, his work has focused on training youth in how to use theater as a tool to educate their peers about sexual decision-making, bias and other social issues. He is co-founder and director of the Victorian Towers Theatrical Society, as well as a tour guide for Cape May MAC. As an actor, favorite roles include: Buzz in Love, Valour, Compassion; Pirelli in Sweeney Todd and Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
* Appearing through an agreement between this theater and Actors' Equity Association,
the Union of Professional Actors & Stage Managers in the United States.
the Union of Professional Actors & Stage Managers in the United States.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (Author) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. He entered the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1881. One of his professors was Dr Joseph Bell, who became the model for Doyle's Sherlock Holmes by his powers of observation to help him deduce the nature of a patient's affliction. Conan Doyle began writing in school, to earn a little extra money, and his first story was published in 1879. When his father fell ill, Doyle became the breadwinner for the family. He worked for a time as a ship's doctor, then opened his own medical practice near Portsmouth. In his spare time, he did more writing.
His third attempt at a novel was A Study in Scarlet. This story, which introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world, was published in 1887. Encouraged by publishers to keep writing, Conan Doyle wrote his second Holmes mystery, The Sign of the Four, in 1890. So successful were these novels, and the stories which followed, that Conan Doyle could afford to give up his medical practice and devote himself to writing full time.
The first Sherlock Holmes short story, A Scandal in Bohemia, appeared in The Strand Magazine in 1891, to be followed by two dozen more stories over the next several years. The stories proved enormously successful, but Conan Doyle tired of his own creation, and
in 1894 he killed Holmes off in The Final Problem.
He underestimated the popularity of his creation. So great was the hold that the character of Sherlock Holmes had taken on the public imagination that Conan Doyle found himself at the center of a storm of controversy. Inundated with letters of protest, he eventually gave in and revived the character of Holmes, who appeared in numerous additional short stories over the next twenty-three years.
But Conan Doyle did not confine himself to Sherlock Holmes; he wrote several popular works of historic fiction, including Micah Clarke (1888), The White Company (1890), Rodney Stone (1896), and Sir Nigel (1906). Conan Doyle served as a doctor in the Boer War, and on his return he wrote two books defending England's participation in that conflict. It was for these books that he received his knighthood in 1902. After the death of his son in World War I, Conan Doyle became interested in spiritualism. He was convinced that it was possible to communicate with the dead, and his views led to a certain amount of ridicule from more mainstream society.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930. He can rightly be credited with helping create the literary genre of the detective story. Though Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin (featured in ELTC’s past production of The Poe Mysteries) pre-dates Sherlock Holmes, it was the Holmes' stories that solidified in the public mind what a good detective should be.
His third attempt at a novel was A Study in Scarlet. This story, which introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world, was published in 1887. Encouraged by publishers to keep writing, Conan Doyle wrote his second Holmes mystery, The Sign of the Four, in 1890. So successful were these novels, and the stories which followed, that Conan Doyle could afford to give up his medical practice and devote himself to writing full time.
The first Sherlock Holmes short story, A Scandal in Bohemia, appeared in The Strand Magazine in 1891, to be followed by two dozen more stories over the next several years. The stories proved enormously successful, but Conan Doyle tired of his own creation, and
in 1894 he killed Holmes off in The Final Problem.
He underestimated the popularity of his creation. So great was the hold that the character of Sherlock Holmes had taken on the public imagination that Conan Doyle found himself at the center of a storm of controversy. Inundated with letters of protest, he eventually gave in and revived the character of Holmes, who appeared in numerous additional short stories over the next twenty-three years.
But Conan Doyle did not confine himself to Sherlock Holmes; he wrote several popular works of historic fiction, including Micah Clarke (1888), The White Company (1890), Rodney Stone (1896), and Sir Nigel (1906). Conan Doyle served as a doctor in the Boer War, and on his return he wrote two books defending England's participation in that conflict. It was for these books that he received his knighthood in 1902. After the death of his son in World War I, Conan Doyle became interested in spiritualism. He was convinced that it was possible to communicate with the dead, and his views led to a certain amount of ridicule from more mainstream society.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930. He can rightly be credited with helping create the literary genre of the detective story. Though Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin (featured in ELTC’s past production of The Poe Mysteries) pre-dates Sherlock Holmes, it was the Holmes' stories that solidified in the public mind what a good detective should be.
