East Lynne Theater Celebrates Women's History Month With Reading of SOMETHING TO VOTE FOR

East Lynne Theater Company will present a reading of "Something to Vote For" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman for free, due to support from The New Jersey Council for the Humanities through its "NJ Women Vote: The 19th Amendment at 100" initiative, and The New Jersey Theatre Alliance's "Stages Festival."

Gilman (1860 - 1935) known for her novel "The Yellow Wallpaper," published this forty-minute one-act in her monthly magazine, "The Forerunner," in 1911. Such plays were important for the suffrage movement because they could be read aloud and/or staged in private homes, bringing this controversial topic into living rooms. Many of the British suffrage plays survived - most of the American ones did not. This both witty and profound play takes place in the home of the president of an influential anti-suffrage women's club. When the group is concerned about the purity of milk, a local milk manufacturer, the new milk inspector, a woman who has recently lost a child, and a woman doctor are invited to speak to the club. The doctor puts the need for women to vote at the center of the conversation if these women really want change for the better.

"Something to Vote For" premieres on Thursday, March 18 at 8:00 PM on ELTC's YouTube Channel https://www.tinyurl.com/ELTCYouTube and a??is available anytime through Sunday, March 21. It can be viewed directly on a flat screen TV, but if viewing it on a computer, ELTC recommends connecting the computer to the TV with an HDMI cable so the play is seen a??on a larger screen with better sound. Closed Caption is available on YouTube.

The talented cast is currently located in South Jersey, Manhattan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Several have worked with ELTC before. Pat Dwyer ("Silent Sky"), Rachel Holt ("Dracula" and "Ah, Wilderness!"), Jared Mason Murray ("Summerland"), Marcia Sofley ("Huckleberry Finn") and Susan Tischler ("Helpful Hints" and others). Two were supposed to have made their ELTC debuts in 2020. Amanda Brinlee was to be in "Born Yesterday," and Ann Flanigan was slated to play Harriet in the NJ premiere of "Possessing Harriet." New to ELTC is Sandra Nickel who has worked with several acting companies in South Jersey. The director is Gayle Stahlhuth, artistic director of ELTC since 1999.

For more information about the show, visit https://www.eastlynnetheater.org/something-to-vote-for.html. To learn more about the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, visit https://njhumanities.org. For more about The New Jersey Theatre Alliance (NJTA), visit https://newjerseytheatrealliance.org, and it's "Stages Festival," https://njtheatrealliance.org/stages-festival.

Founded in 1981, NJTA is the first statewide organization for professional, not-for-profit theater companies in the United States. The "Stages Festival," running from March through May, was created in 1997 to encourage people to attend NJ's professional theaters by making the experience affordable, accessible, and fun. Funding for the festival is provided by Bank of America, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, PSEG Foundation, OceanFirst Foundation, The NJ Historical Commission, George A. Ohl, Jr. Trust, and NJ State Council on the Arts.

Until ELTC can once more provide live performances in the summer, they are offering virtual events on YouTube. Next up is a reprise of "Nothing Matters," a two-person show about famous journalist Ambrose Bierce who worked for, among others, William Randolph Hurst. It runs from April 12 - May 9, every evening at 8:00 PM for free or pay-what-you will. Premiering on Thursday, April 22 at 8:00 PM and available anytime through April 25, for free, is "Aunt Hattie's House" about what compelled Harriet Beecher Stowe to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin." To learn more about the company visit www.eastlynnetheater.org e-mail eastlynneco@aol.com, or call 609-884-5898.

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