East Lynne Theater Company to Host Summer Student Workshop

Applications are available for the award-winning East Lynne Theater Company's Summer Student Workshop - and several students have already signed up. There's no final decision yet on what play is being produced, but an adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula's Guest" is being considered to accompany ELTC's mainstage production of "Dracula."

The last nine productions, "Alice in Wonderland," "The Little Princess," "Hans Brinker," "Connecticut Yankee," "Little Women," "Storybook Theater," "1,001 Arabian Nights," "The Dancing Princesses" and "Tom Sawyer, Detective," were performed by students in front of standing-room only audiences. This year, twelve students ages 10-16, will once more have the opportunity to work with ELTC's professional staff. Sally Bingham is once more heading up the workshop, making this her fourth year.

For over twenty-five years, Bingham has been involved in theater as an actor, director, and playwright in Chicago and Philadelphia, participating in productions ranging from full-length improvisational plays to fringe festivals to children's musicals. She has taught acting skills and creativity to both corporate executives and children. With her husband, playwright Ken Bingham, they founded the professional theater company Edge Productions and Over The Edge Comedy Troupe. Currently, she and Rudy Caporaso, as artists-in-residence for ELTC, are directing fifth graders in "Hamlet" as part of Wildwood School District's after-school program. The performance will be on May 5. On her own, Bingham started West Cape May Elementary School's after-school theater program four years ago.

Technical Director, Lee O'Connor, and Artistic Director, Gayle Stahlhuth, will be assisting, as usual, along with ELTC's production assistants.

This year's workshop times are 12:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. on the following days: Tues.-Fri., June 21-24; June 28-July 1; and Tues. July 5. On the first day, June 21, parents/guardians may arrive a little early to talk to the workshop staff, but class will begin at 12:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, July 5 at 8:00 p.m., students perform in front of an audience, open to the public, and admission-free.

ELTC has a long standing tradition of working with students and is the only nonprofit in South Jersey that has consistently conducted in-school and after-school residencies in Cape May County. For sixteen years, ELTC's artists-in-residence have taught acting and playwriting to fourth grade through high school students, culminating in admission-free performances for the community, in venues in Lower Township, Middle Township, Ocean City, Whitesboro, Cape May, West Cape May, and Wildwood. ELTC procures funding for these residencies through grants and other sources, so that not one cent is derived from schools or local taxes. ELTC is now in its fourth year of being part of Wildwood School District's five-year after-school program due to the district receiving the federal 21st Century Learning Centers grant.

Throughout the years, ELTC has offered school matinees. The next one will be "Mr. Lincoln" on Wednesday, May 11 at 2:00 p.m. Already 70 students plus teachers and guardians have made reservations. For information about this matinee, contact Gayle Stahlhuth at the theater.

The location for the workshop and the performance is The First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St. (corner of Decatur and Hughes) in Cape May, where the company is in residence, and the fee is $200. To receive an application form, visit www.eastlynnetheater.org or call the office at 609-884-5898 to receive one via snail mail. For questions, contact Artistic Director, Gayle Stahlhuth at eastlynneco@aol.com or call the office.

To post a comment, you must register and login.