Class American Tales Offers Playwriting and Acting Workshops

Gayle Stahlhuth, founder of Classic American Tales (CAT) who had been producing artistic director of East Lynne Theater Company for 23 years, will head up two workshops in April in Cape May County. On Tuesday, April 9 from 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., it's a Playwriting Workshop for free at The Cape May Court House Public Library, 30 Mechanic Street. The Acting Workshop takes place at End of the Road Theater, 3845 Bayshore Road, North Cape May, on Wednesday, April 10 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., however participants are asked to arrive by 6:45 p.m. so the class can start on time. Both workshops are for ages 17 on up, and all levels of experience are welcomed. 

For the Playwriting Workshop, Stahlhuth guides participants in getting dialogue going by thinking of different times, locations, characters, events, and writing exercises to trigger the imagination. The Acting Workshop will not be a repeat of past workshops, but will involve acting games, movement, improvisation, and scene study using the original 1926 play "Chicago," not the musical, but the play upon which the musical is based. More scenes from "Chicago" will be added since the March workshop, and Roxie, Velma, and Billy Flynn can be any age. 

Stahlhuth has conducted acting and playwriting workshops throughout the country for 40 years at universities, public schools, libraries, on Ute Reservations, for Road Scholars (formerly Elderhostel), and for Theatre for a New Audience and Plays for Living in NYC. She started conducting in-school residencies for public schools in Cape May County in 2000 and started ELTC’s Summer Theater Workshop in 2006. 

As a playwright, Stahlhuth has received commissions from The Smithsonian Institution, Theatreworks/USA and The Illinois and Missouri Humanities Councils, and grants from The New Jersey Humanities Council.  Her plays have been performed at such places as the NYC International Fringe Festival, The Samuel French One-Act Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Arvada Center in Denver, Pennsylvania Stage Company, the Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis, and East Lynne Theater Company in Cape May. For several years, she was a popular workshop leader at the now-disbanded North Wildwood Beach Writers' Conference and created an annual two-day playwriting get-away at The Henry Sawyer Inn in Cape May, which is now a private home.  In 2019, she was a speaker at a symposium in NYC, sponsored by the nonprofit Dancers Over 40. Her topic here was how to create, perform, and market one-person shows. Aside from shows with a variety of cast sizes, she has written one-person shows that she has performed in NYC and throughout the country. 

For information and reservations for the free Playwrighting Workshop, call the library at 609-463-6350 or visit https://cmclibrary.org/about-the-library/locations/capemaycourthouse. Cost for the Acting Workshop is $20.00 and may be paid in advance by visiting endoftheroadtheater.com/the-stage/, 

e-mailing JenniferSwain@endoftheroadtheater.com, or phoning 609-536-9393. So Stahlhuth can better plan, advance reservations for both workshops are greatly appreciated. 

Up next, Stahlhuth is one of the judges for the Cumberland and Cape May Counties Teen Arts Festival on April 24, and on April 28, a selection from her play "One Step at a Time" will be performed for "Caregivers Voices Onstage" at Premiere Stages in Union, NJ.  From June 13 through October, CAT's "Tales of the Victorians" returns to The Dormer House in Cape May.   

Visit https://www.ClassicAmericanTales.org to learn more about CAT, e-mail ClassicAmericanTales@aol.com, or call 609-884-5898. CAT intends to tell America's stories one tale at a time.