Meet the Actors in East Lynne Theater Company AH, WILDERNESS!

For those who didn't have the opportunity to meet the cast of fourteen in East Lynne Theater Company's "Ah, Wilderness!" at the after-show party at The Merion Inn, another chance is to be had on Friday, August 4 at an after-show Q&A. It's a wonderful opportunity for patrons to ask the actors and director such questions as how characters are created, what goes into selecting a season of plays, and where they have previously worked. Actors in this production have a variety of backgrounds, including performing in regional theater, film and on Broadway, and are ages 12 on up.

Taking place during the July 4th weekend in 1906 in a small Connecticut town, "Ah, Wilderness!" offers a gentle portrait of family values and teenage growing pains. It's Eugene O'Neill's (1888-1953) only comedy. When it premiered on Broadway in 1933, George M. Cohan portrayed Nat Miller, Richard's father. When it went on the road, Will Rogers played the part.

On October 16, 1888, while James O''Neill was playing the title role in "The Count of Monte Cristo," his son, Eugene, was born in a Manhattan hotel room. After a year at Princeton, he was suspended for throwing a beer bottle through a window in college president Woodrow Wilson's home during a party. He then took to the sea as a sailor.

O'Neill's decision to become a playwright came after he was hospitalized with tuberculosis in a sanatorium. Forced to remain inactive, he read plays by Strindberg and Ibsen. After only three years working with The Provincetown Players, he won the Pulitzer Prize for "Beyond the Horizon." Other Pulitzer Prizes followed: "Anna Christie," "Strange Interlude," and "Long Day's Journey into Night," which he didn't want produced until after his death. He received the Pulitzer for this one, posthumously, in 1957. This harshly brilliant semi-autobiographical drama is very different from the idyllic, loving, and fun family he created for "Ah, Wilderness!"

The cast includes those who've worked for ELTC: Jared Noah Aronoff (production assistant), Rachel Holt ("Dracula"), Mark Edward Lang ("The Guardsman"), Mark Lazar ("Zorro"), Rob LeMaire ("The Dictator"), Alison J. Murphy ("The Late Christopher Bean"), Emma Palzere-Rae ("Aunt Hattie's House"), Thomas Raniszewski ("It Pays to Advertise"), and Evan Smilyk ("Huckleberry Finn"); and those new to ELTC: Connor J. Burke (recent graduate from Elizabethtown College in PA), Brigid Harrington (Broadway's "Marry Poppins"), Sydney Freihofer (several NJ theaters), and Jakob Pender (ELTC's Student Summer Workshop production). ELTC's artistic director, Gayle Stahlhuth, directs and plays a small role.

"Ah, Wilderness!" runs four nights a week, Wednesdays through Saturdays, at 8:00 p.m. at the historic First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May, from July 26 - September 2.

Tickets are $32; $27 for seniors; $17 for students and those in the military, retired or a veteran. Age 12 and under are free. For more information and to make a reservation, call 609-884-5898 or go online to www.eastlynnetheater.org.

Mainstage productions and educational outreach programs would not be possible without season sponsors Curran Investment Management, Aleathea's Restaurant, The Henry Sawyer Inn and The Washington Inn; Show sponsor La Mer Beachfront Inn; The NJ Dept. of State, Division of Travel & Tourism; NJ State Council on the Arts/Dept. of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; and the generosity of many patrons. The Show Sponsor for "Ah, Wilderness!" is La Mer Beachfront Inn.

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