Frank Smith getting ready to perform a Christmas story, photo by Gayle Stahlhuth

(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- Classic American Tales (CAT) is throwing a little party to celebrate a successful 2024 Season and give a peek into the 2025 Season on Sunday, December 8, 2024 from 4:00pm – 7:00pm. The Cape May, NJ location will be revealed to attendees who purchase tickets.

CAT’s Christmas Gathering includes light refreshments comprised of sandwiches, fruit plates, and desserts, unique silent auction items, and the opportunity to mingle with other theater lovers, all for only $30.00. Tickets are available for purchase online.

Frank Smith and Gayle Stahlhuth will also present two short classic American Christmas stories. Not only did Smith read stories for East Lynne Theater Company's (ELTC) "Tales of the Victorians" for over a decade, but he was also the storyteller for ten years for Cape May MAC's "Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides." For forty years, Stahlhuth was associated with ELTC as a board member, performer, playwright, workshop leader, director, and producer. Smith and Stahlhuth were two of the performers who presented "Tales at the Dormer House" these past two summers.

Founded by artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth and board trustees Frank Smith, Barbara Morris, and Kathy Mottola in June 2023, this nonprofit theater is "telling America's stories one tale at a time."  This past year alone, CAT involved ten different performers with performances, workshops, and lectures at the historic Dormer House B&B, End of the Road Theater, and Cape May County Public Libraries.  In 2025, CAT will be providing a lecture for Cape May MAC as well. Events this year included the classic plays "Chicago" and "Trifles," and plays based on loss, the life of writer Edna Ferber, and performer Will Rogers; lectures on Civil War heroes: Black and White; Harlem Renaissance and The Algonquin Round Table; Fables in Black and White; and stories by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Carolyn Wells, George Ade, Ben Hecht, Grace Paley, William Goyen, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Kate Chopin, Margaret Black, Elsie Singmaster, James Thurber, Alexander Woollcott, and E. A. Poe.

To learn more about CAT visit https://www.ClassicAmericanTales.org