So that we can continue to engage our patrons with cultural experiences, Cape May Stage is dedicated to providing virtual and digital programming until we are able to welcome audiences again.
Our 2020 Virtual Reading and Lecture Series will include a variety of topics and guest readers for our patrons and community members to enjoy individually or together. Our diverse line-up of theatre, Lectures, and Broadway Stars will tickle the fancy of almost anyone. CMS stage is committed to making theatre inclusive for all. We truly believe that creativity flourishes the best when everyone is included. Though our digital programs we are able to provide a platform that allows us to break down the barriers and create a world without labels and celebrate our differences.
Special Digital Events
Victoria's Secrets
With a reign lasting 63 years, you can be sure that Queen Victoria has a few secrets to share… and she is finally letting loose. Written and Performed by Candace O’Donnell, Victoria’s Secrets delves into the less known aspects of Queen Victoria’s Historic life. Filmed on location at the Emlen Physick Estate in Cape May, New Jersey with special assistance from Cape May MAC (Museums+Arts+Culture).
All proceeds benefit Cape May Stage!
For many years, Candace O’Donnell juggled teaching English, performing in eight different theaters in Lancaster, PA (most notably the Fulton Opera House) and mothering four children and eight grandchildren. Her favorite role was Driving Miss Daisy, but when she retired from Elizabethtown College, Candace began researching, writing, and performing historic monologues. Perhaps you saw her one-woman Mary Lincoln at the Chalfonte Hotel or her Sarah Bernhardt at Cape May Stage.
Rent Victoria’s Secrets for only $25.00 for a 1 week rental or Purchase for only $40.00 and have it forever.
All proceeds benefit Cape May Stage. Available on September 7th
Victoria’s Secrets from Cape May Stage on Vimeo.
UPCOMING VIRTUAL READINGS
Lines in
the Dust
By Nikkole Salter
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Virtual Reading: September 17th @ 6:00 PM
Lines in the Dust tells the story of the lengths a mother will go through to ensure a better future for her daughter and explores the issue of separate and unequal schooling. Denitra, a mother and Newark resident seeks to send her daughter to a better school in Millburn, which seems like a risk worth taking, but may end up requiring a bigger sacrifice than she could have imagined.
Lines in the Dust explores the injustices of a public school system where the quality of your child’s education can depend solely on your street address. Originally commissioned by Luna Stage to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education, the play reveals the persistent racial inequities defining public education in 21st century America.
Happy
By Alan Zweibel
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Virtual Reading: September 24th @ 6:00 PM
In Happy by Alan Zweibel (“SNL,” Curb Your Enthusiasm,” 700 Sundays with Billy Crystal) a baseball fan makes a pilgrimage to the home of a former baseball star who is now a janitor in Delray Beach, Florida and asks him to sign a very special ball. After a fair amount of humor and misunderstanding, the power of baseball to bond fathers, sons and men emerges.
Cast:
Donald – Michael Basile
Happy – Jesse N. Holmes
Adored You
By Rachel Lynett
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Virtual Reading: October 1st @ 6:00 PM
Lila and Alex meet in a coffee shop. Over the next three years (in a single day), they try to form a life together, with all the ups and downs that comes with being in love.
PAST VIRTUAL READINGS
The Whipping Man
By Matthew Lopez
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Virtual Reading: August 27th at 6:00 PM
The Whipping Man examines a vital, but not often spoken of period in American history, the post-Civil War South, as former slaves and slavemasters struggled to acclimate to the new emancipated social order. The play is set in Richmond, Virginia in April of 1865. The Confederacy has just surrendered and throughout the South, slaves are being freed and soldiers are returning home. Caleb DeLeon, grievously wounded and starving, returns to his family home in Richmond to discover an empty house. Only Simon, the old family slave, remains. That same day, John, another former slave of the DeLeons’, also returns. The three must navigate their new relationships while settling with demons from the past, culminating in a Passover Seder where former master and slaves must decide where honesty and loyalty will lie.
Adrift
By Richard Alleman Directed
By Anthony Newfield
Virtual Reading: August 20th at 6:00 PM
Adrift by Richard Alleman, Featuring two-time Tony nominee Alison Fraser (Secret Garden, Romance/Romance) along with Glauco Araujo, Karen Archer, and Anthony Newfield.
Adrift exposes a day in the life of a wealthy WASP couple trying to escape the horrors of a dystopian world by living full-time aboard an ultra-luxurious cruise ship-turned-condo colony.
Playwright, Richard Alleman says “I’ve been intrigued by the ads for cruise ships that cater to the super-rich who own their accommodations and live on board year-round,” “Like a floating gated community, these ships promise luxurious insulation from the real world outside. But what would it be like living on one–especially in a dystopian world? I tried to explore that possibility in Adrift.”
This short play was originally produced at the 2019 New York Frigid Festival by Poked Bear Theater. Asya Gorovits, writing in Theater is Easy, lauded Alleman in her review of the play’s Frigid Festival run saying that he “uses his various verbal weapons skillfully,” wielding “absurdist horror” to go “mercilessly after the ignorant…. I had a great time, laughing while being simultaneously horrified.”
Reading will stream via Cape May Stage’s Virtual Theater on Vimeo on Demand and Cape May Stage’s Facebook page on August 20th at 6:00 PM
To View Reading Click Here!
Virtual Reading of Constellations
By Nick Payne
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Thursday, July 30th, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Nick Payne’s beautiful play, Constellations, explores how even the smallest change in our lives can dramatically alter the course we take. It is a spellbinding exploration of love, science, quantum theory, and infinite possibility for heartbreak or for hope.
To View Reading of CONSTELLATIONS click link below to be directed to Cape May Stage’s Digital Theater on Vimeo!
Virtual Reading of Two Henrys
By Kenneth Jones
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Thursday, June 18th, 2020 at 7:00 PM
In the dead of winter, Henry flies from New York to Florida to offer condolences at the funeral of a father figure he never knew. But as the booze flows at the wake, are the surviving widow and her grown daughter ready to raise a glass to the unexpected guest? Set in 2012, somewhere between the dusk of the worst days of the AIDS crisis and the dawn of marriage equality, Two Henrys is a humor-laced drama about guilt and grief, perceptions and prejudices and the urge to find family
Reading Performed by Marlena Lustik, Barry Phillips, and Annie Edgerton
Stage Directions by Mitchell Malnati
Virtual Reading of Gravediggers
By Dan McCormick
Directed By Roy Steinberg
Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 6:00 PM
Reading performed by Roy Steinberg and Mitchell Malnati,
Stage Directions by Marlena Lustik
At the onset of the pandemic currently affecting our world, two gravediggers work overtime, wondering how this all started , how it will end, and discover they have more in common than they originally thought. The secret they discover will surprise you.
Freud’s Last Session
By Mark St. Germain
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Virtual Reading: Thursday, August 13th at 6:00 PM
Freud’s Last Session centers on legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud who invites the young, rising Oxford Don C.S. Lewis to his home in London. On the day England enters World War Two, Freud and Lewis clash about love, sex, the existence of God, and the meaning of life, just weeks before Freud took his own life. Freud’s Last Session is a deeply touching play filled with humor and exploring the minds, hearts and souls of two brilliant men addressing the greatest questions of all time.
Starring:
Joel Rooks as Dr. Sigmund Freud
Mark Irish as C.S. Lewis
Virtual Reading of American Son
By Christopher Demos-Brown
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Thursday, July 16th, 2020 at 7:00 PM
The play, which had its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company in 2016, follows a mother engaged in a search for her missing son at a Florida police station in the middle of the night.
Reading Performed by:
Kendra Ellis-Connor……….….……Noelle LuSane
Scott Connor………………..……….Michael Basile
Officer Paul Larkin…..……………..Stephen James Anthony
Lieutenant John Stokes…………….Art McFarland
To View Reading of AMERICAN SON click link below to be directed to Cape May Stage’s Digital Theater on Vimeo!
Virtual Reading of America’s Sexiest Couple
By Ken Levine
Directed by Ken Levine
Thursday, June 18th, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Reading performed by Dee Dee Rescher, Andy Barnicle, and Jeremy Konopka
Stage Directions by Mitchell Malnati
Two actors, who were “America’s Sexiest Couple” on a popular ‘80s sitcom reunite for the first time in 30 years. They face a lifetime of unresolved issues, longings, resentments, and regrets. Plus, the network wants to reboot the show. Career and personal aspirations collide. Professionally and personally, where do they go from here?
Virtual Reading of A Song at Twilight
by Noel Coward
Directed by Roy Steinberg
Thursday, May 21, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Reading Performed by Roy Steinberg, Marlena Lustik, and Mitchell Malnati,
Stage Directions by Mitchell Malnati
A Song at Twilight is a play in two acts by Noël Coward. It is one of a trio of plays collectively entitled Suite in Three Keys, all of which are set in the same suite in a luxury hotel in Switzerland. The play depicts an elderly writer confronted by his former mistress with facts about his past life that he would prefer to forget.
Cape May Stage always looks to support emerging playwrights and their new plays. Through readings we are able to present these brand new plays to the public. We always offer our readings as donation based to allow everyone to enjoy these plays. Any donations can help offset the costs of these readings and allow us to present even more new and exciting plays!
Click Below if you would like to donate to Cape May Stage.
Donate Now!
Virtual Reading is supported in part by Stages Online, a partnership with New Jersey Theatre Alliance to bring theatre content into homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. www.njtheatrealliance.org
Stages Online is made possible by generous funding from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, Bank of America,The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, OceanFirst Foundation; the George A. Ohl, Jr. Trust; New Jersey Historical Commission; and Fund for the New Jersey Blind.”
Hello, I do not have a Facebook account. Can I participate in the virtual readings without one? Thank you.
Hello, The Virtual Readings are available through our website and our Youtube channel the following week.
Great readings, Thank You
So far I have viewed three of your Virtual Reading performances. The acting in all three has been exceptional! In this time of COVID closures, you are offering us, your “theatre-starved” audience, entertainment of the highest caliber! I am doing all I can to spread the word to theater-loving friends up here in Maine where I live. Multiple “bravos” to all involved…