(CAPE MAY COUNTY,NJ) -- For sixteen years, the nonprofit Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company has been involved with educational outreach in schools in Cape May County, usually having to find the funding through organizations like Target and The New Jersey Theatre Alliance (NJTA), so that not one penny comes from school districts and the community. Over the years, ELTC’s artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth has conducted school workshops that culminate in admission-free performances for the community in Cape May and Ocean City.  For ten years, she has worked with students at West Cape May Elementary School.

     In 2011, with funding she procured from the Target Foundation, Stahlhuth began working in the Wildwood School District. This led ELTC to not only create the after-school theater program in Wildwood, but to introduce students to live professional performances.

     For two years, the in-school residencies were in Glenwood Avenue Elementary School. Due to becoming known in the district, ELTC was asked to be part of the district’s after-school program started in the fall of 2012 with funding from the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, procured by the district. For the past four school years, ELTC’s artists-in-residence have conducted two workshops two days a week, throughout the school year, focusing on improvisation, movement, rehearsals, and performance. Every year, students perform for family and friends, and this year is no different.              

     On Thursday, May 5 at 4:00p.m., 25 students, mostly fifth graders, will perform “Hamlet.”  Featured, is the famous “To Be or Not To Be” speech spoken in English and Spanish. After the performance, students and parents will dine in the school cafeteria. 

      Since this after-school program began, ELTC’s artists-in-residence Sally Bingham and Rudy Caporaso have been leading the workshops and are currently directing “Hamlet,” complete with costumes and props.

     Bingham, who has been an actor, director, and playwright for over twenty-five years, has been heading up ELTC’s Student Summer Theater Workshop for the past three years, and started the after-school theater workshop at West Cape May Elementary School, focusing on Shakespeare.  Caporaso, co-founder/co-artistic director of Rev Theater Company, has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway, regional, and London productions. He's worked extensively in outreach theater programs for Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, and charter and public schools in New York City, Philadelphia, upstate New York and in Connecticut. 

     Due to this after-school program, students have also been able to attend special matinees of ELTC’s radio-style detective plays and the holiday show. Eager to have students see ELTC's production of “Mr. Lincoln” starring Tom Byrn, Stahlhuth scheduled a matinee on Wednesday, May 11, with a special student ticket price of $10. Teachers managing Wildwood's after-school program, with funding from the above-mentioned grant, booked 34 after-school students to come see the show.  

     Teri Calloway, a teacher in Wildwood, wanted to bring her 40 history students, but most could not afford it. At ELTC's fundraising Sunday at Fins Bar & Grille in March, Stahlhuth had a 50/50 raffle to raise funds for these students. She also sent word out through e-newsletters, and pretty soon, the money was raised so that all students can now attend “Mr. Lincoln” admission-free. Donations came in from the Cape May area, Central and Northern New Jersey, and even from the Midwest.

     In Calloway’s thank you note, she wrote:

    “The students of Wildwood Public Schools are lucky to have generous people thinking about them.  We appreciate the thoughtfulness of you taking your time and money to allow students from the district to see “Mr. Lincoln.” The learning experience that seeing “Mr. Lincoln” will provide to the students will enhance what we are studying in the classroom and hopefully broaden their future feelings about history and live theater. Keeping theater alive through our youth is one of the best gifts we can provide.”

     Stahlhuth has always been an advocate for keeping theater and the arts in the classroom. Along with working as a professional actor, playwright, and director, she has worked as an artist-in-residence herself throughout the country in a variety of public schools from Corning, NY, to Wise, WV, to Ute reservations in Utah.