TALES OF THE VICTORIANS
Entering our 32nd Year of a Storytelling Tradition
In 2020, this was on YouTube (virtual) and in a Backyard (live.)
Susan Tischler pictured above in the Backyard.
In 2020, this was on YouTube (virtual) and in a Backyard (live.)
Susan Tischler pictured above in the Backyard.
James Rana
Many enjoyed our TALES IN THE BACKYARD that ran from mid-June through mid-December, and as soon as the weather warms up, we'll be back with more!
To read about who performed what, Click Here
TALES ON YOUTUBE
On April 30, 2020 we launched our TALES OF THE VICTORIANS - AT HOME EDITION.
These don't last an hour and we can't give you a cup of tea and homemade treats like we do when we perform at local B&Bs and businesses, but we are reading stories by famous Americans, and we hope you enjoy them! Click Here to Go to our YouTube Channel.
Our TALES were featured on Broadwayworld.com, NJArts.net, and NewJerseyStage.com!
READINGS AVAILABLE ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Celebrating Earth Day: A poem about Johnny Appleseed read by James Rana: Click Here
Celebrating Shakespeare's Birthday: A sonnet read by Gayle Stahlhuth: Click Here
"The Lighthouse" by Edgar Allan Poe read by James Rana: Click Here
"One Thousand Dollars" by O. Henry read by Gayle Stahlhuth: Click Here
"The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert W. Service read by Lee O'Connor: Click Here
"The Canal Boat" by Harriet Beecher Stowe read by Emma Palzere-Rae: Click Here
A Scene from "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell read by James Rana, Lee O'Connor, and Gayle Stahlhuth: Click Here
"The Lady or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton read by James Rana: Click Here
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin read by Gayle Stahlhuth: Click Here
"A Cowboy's Prayer" by Charles Badger Clark, Jr. read by Lee O'Connor: Click Here
"Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, read by James Rana: Click Here
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain read by Gayle Stahlhuth: Click Here
NOT ABOVE A WHISPER, a two-person play-reading about Dorothea Lynde Dix: Click Here
"Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" read by James Rana: Click Here
"A Great Tree" by Zona Gale read by Gayle Stahlhuth: Click Here
MEET THE PERFORMERS
Sydia Cedeño played Enid Stoner in ELTC's Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Speckled Band. She has graced the stage for forty years, as actress, singer and director, and was co-founder of the Runaway Theater Company in NYC, where she served as Artistic Director as well as performer. Sydia was a reader for the “All Write” Selected Shorts program with Symphony Space for many years, recorded for NPR. She comes directly from the New York Musical Festival with the premier of "Errol and Fidel". She appeared as Abuela with the Gallery Players production of In the Heights. Member of Actors' Equity Association.
Suzanne Dawson has played leading roles off-Broadway in: CBS Live, The Last Musical Comedy, The Great American Backstage Musical, and the revival of New Faces of ’52. Her regional credits include Sylvia at Florida Studio Theatre, The Snowball and A Little Night Music at Buffalo Studio Arena, Carnival at The Alliance in Atlanta, and Rumors at Paper Mill Playhouse here in NJ. She toured with Rumors, and opposite Gavin Macleod in Last of the Red Hot Lovers. ELTC shows include: To the Ladies!, Alice on the Edge, The Butter and Egg Man, Berkeley Square, The World of Dorothy Parker, Dulcy, Ruth Draper’s Company of Characters, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Zorro!, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Member AEA.
Stephanie Garrett splits her time between Philadelphia, Cape May and Florida. She played Mary in ELTC's NJ premiere of Jan Buttram's Lost on the Natchez Trace, and also performed in ELTC’s Women and the Vote, Rain, The People of Cape May v. Johan Van Buren, and Christmas in Black and White with Gayle Stahlhuth. She performs regularly for the company’s popular “Tales of the Victorians.” Over fifteen years ago, as a volunteer at Historic Cold Spring Village, she became a storyteller, specializing in early 19th Century Cape May County African American History. Garrett has a BA and MA in Sociology and 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. She is past President of the Greater Cape May Historical Society.
Dorothy and Malcolm Knapp have been married for over fifty years. They met in Baltimore in the 1960s where they were studying nursing and engineering and developing a lifelong interest in theater. They lived up and down the east coast and moved to Cape May about fifteen years ago. They’ve been active in theater in Maryland and in Cape May, working on props, sets, costumes and as producers and caterers (yes, caterers), while getting almost no experience whatsoever as actors. They worked as museum educators for MAC, where they learned about the history of Cape May and developed their portrayals of Caroline and Benjamin Harrison, who summered here in the 1890s. Dottie feels close to Carrie Harrison because they were both involved with Johns Hopkins, and Mal feels close to Benjamin because Benjamin was 5’6” tall and Mal is 6’5”.
Andrew Lofredo just finished his sophomore year at the University of Central Florida pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre and was most recently seen in the ensemble of Theatre UCF’s Titanic. Other past roles include Hugo in Tuck Everlasting and Lucas in The Addams Family. He is performing in ELTC's virtual reading of Historical Spout Offs.
Suzanne Longacre Off-Off Broadway, Suzanne was featured in Hal Thompson’s productions of JB and Green Pastures with playwright Mark Connelly present. Regionally, in addition to being a veteran “Victorian Tale” reader with ELTC, she has performed with South Jersey Regional Theater, Cape May Stage, Ocean City Repertory, South Jersey Youth Opera, Kiss Me Kate with the Ocean City Pops, and the Festival Chorus and Master Works Choir of Ocean City, where she lives from May to November. She has also performed with the Fort Hills Players (Scarsdale, NY), Summit Playhouse, Greensboro Lyric Opera (Lady Anne in Camelot) and the Caldwell Players in her favorite leading role as Cora in Dark at the Top of The Stairs. She also has appeared in fourteen films, ranging from The Color of Money to Rocky V to The Bounty Hunter, as well as a brief appearance on TV’s General Hospital. Suzanne received dramatic training, performed, and was inducted into Theta Alpha Phi Drama Honorary Society at Ohio Wesleyan University. In midlife, after raising four children, she studied at BADA,the British American Drama Academy at Balliol College, Oxford, and at Weist Barron Ryan Film and TV School. For ten years, after retiring from her day job in public service, she and her husband sailed around the world. They still live aboard and cruise in warm climes from November to May. Member Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.
Lee O'Connor portrayed Holmes in ELTC’s William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes, and has portrayed Holmes in most of ELTC's NBC radio-style adventures. He also appeared in ELTC’s The Leach Diaries, The Dictator, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Dick Spindler’s Family Christmas, the staged readings of Henry Sawyer and the Civil War and Our American Cousin, and is a storyteller for ELTC’s “Tales of the Victorians.” Other performing work includes The Odd Couple in Saigon while serving in Vietnam, and traveling throughout the country with his wife, Gayle Stahlhuth, in a two-hander written by Stahlhuth, Not Above A Whisper. Commissioned by The Smithsonian, it is about Dorothea Lynde Dix, who fought for the rights of the indigent mentally ill. Aside from being ELTC’s Technical Director since 1999, he has worked at a variety of regional theaters, and his work in NYC includes Radio City Music Hall, Irish Rep, Primary Stages, and special events for Dancers Over 40. Member AEA.
Emma Palzere-Rae played Essie Miller in Ah, Wilderness! at East Lynne Theater Company, where she appeared as Harriet Beecher Stowe in Aunt Hattie’s House in 2000, which continues to be offered for touring through ELTC. Emma’s Be Well Productions also tours her original one-woman plays about Emily Dickinson, Victoria Woodhull and Gilda Radner throughout the country. She has appeared in regional and off-Broadway theaters and in film and television. Favorite roles include Sister Aloysius in Doubt (Emerson Theater Collaborative), Dean Kenny in Spinning into Butter (Newgate), and Maria in Lend Me a Tenor (Centennial Theater Festival). She is the former artistic director of NYC’s Plays for Living, and a former company member of Quicksilver Radio Theater. Emma currently resides in southeastern CT where she co-directs Mystic Seaport’s annual holiday production “Lantern Light Tours." Member Actors' Equity Association.
James Rana East Lynne credits include: A Year in the Trenches (playwright), Dracula, Strictly Dishonorable, Huckleberry Finn (playwright), Zorro! (playwright/performer), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (playwright), The Poe Mysteries (playwright/performer), and Sherlock Holmes’ Adventure of the Norwood Builder. Ensemble Studio Theatre, Pan Asian Rep, Luna Stage, The Shakespeare Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Co. (UK), Classical Theatre of Harlem, Actors Shakespeare Co., Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Coney Island USA, Comedysportz, Worth Street Theatre, Shakespeare & Co., Princeton Rep, Globe Neuss and Bonn Biennale (Germany). Film/Television: Swim Little Fish Swim, The War Within, A Girl Like You With A Boy Like Me, The Assassin, Law & Order: SVU, Chicago Fire, Third Watch, One Life To Live, As the World Turns, Conan O’Brien. Radio: Poe: A Celebration (wrote and narrated) for NPR. Stage Adaptations: From The Earth To The Moon (workshop: Tri-State Actors Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Actors Shakespeare Co.).
In 2017, he performed in Off-Broadway's The Government Inspector starring Michael Urie. In the fall of 2017, he began rehearsals for Broadway’s The Band's Visit, and performed several times in the role of the Band's Leader, originally performed by Tony Shalhoub, and other roles. When this Tony Award winning show closed on Broadway in April 2018, he began performing in The National Tour.
James received his MFA from Trinity Rep and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild.
In 2017, he performed in Off-Broadway's The Government Inspector starring Michael Urie. In the fall of 2017, he began rehearsals for Broadway’s The Band's Visit, and performed several times in the role of the Band's Leader, originally performed by Tony Shalhoub, and other roles. When this Tony Award winning show closed on Broadway in April 2018, he began performing in The National Tour.
James received his MFA from Trinity Rep and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild.
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, and radio. Other work involves directing cabaret shows in NYC, starting a dinner theater in Billings, MT, and creating a Medieval Festival at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. A Year in the Trenches (2017), marked her 100th production for ELTC since becoming artistic director in 1999. As a playwright, 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, The Ransom of Red Chief based on O.Henry's classic tale, and two radio-style scripts: The Adventure of the Norwood Builder and The Adventure of the Red-Headed League. .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 broadcast news. In 2016, she was honored for her work in theater by The National Association of Professional Women (NAPW). Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, Dramatists Guild, and NAPW.
Susan Tischler is the storyteller for The Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides, produced by ELTC with Cape May MAC. She was commissioned by ELTC to write and perform Helpful Hints based on Putnam's Household Handbook (1916). Directed by Karen Case Cook, it premiered at The Chalfonte and was part of ELTC's Mainstage Season in 2011. She was also in ELTC's Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Speckled Band and The People of Cape May vs. Johan Van Buren, written by Dutch TV personality Judge Frank Visser, produced by ELTC as part of the 400th Anniversary of Cape May’s Founding. From 2017-2019, she performed for SPQR Theatre, also in Cape May, in Calliope Rose, The Wreck of the Spanish Armada, and her own original works, Meet the Locals and Tao of Tisch. She was then selected to perform Tao of Tisch at The Women's Theatre Comedy Showcase in Parsippany, NJ. Other credits include portraying Minnie Pearl and co-producing Barry’s Cape May Opry and Barry’s Christmas Opry, proceeds of the latter go to the West Cape May Christmas Parade. Susan is the co-owner of Kaleidoscope and Just for Laughs on the Washington Street Mall in Cape May, and writes for Exit Zero. 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
