Lunch & Learn

Using the tools of the theatre like sets, lights, costumes and a written narrative, Producing Artistic Director Roy Steinberg of Cape May Stage will identify how a story can be told for a desired effect. Slipping on a banana can be a comic moment – or a tragedy if it is you who breaks your hip!

George Gershwin wrote classical music, but he also wrote pop songs, Broadway musicals, composed an opera, and created music for Hollywood film scores! Hear some favorites and discover some new treasures as Dr. Brenda Leonard explores one of the legends of American music.

Presenter Ellen Alford will address the Black presence of both residents and those black people who traveled through Cape May. She will speak to who some of these people were and how their actions affected others in town.

Beginning with Our American Cousin in 1865, the musicals of Harrigan and Hart, on to the Provincetown Players, and the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1918 and other Broadway shows through 1929, artistic director of Classic American Tales, Gayle Stahlhuth, explores over 50 years of Theater in America.

Rick Geffken returns to discuss the Garden State’s evolving attitudes after New Jersey was the last northern state to ratify the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery everywhere. Jim Crow laws and attitudes legalized racial segregation. How did New Jersey “white wash” its history of slavery from books and the public educational system?

 Juneteenth celebrates the liberation of the last group of African-Americans held in bondage in 1865.  Ted Bryan will trace the holiday from its beginning to today.

 From sonnets to villanelles to haikus, there so many rich ways of saying things that can create connections, emotions, and delight. Cape May Poet-Laureate Sylvia Baer will take us on an exploration of the variety of poetic forms in writing. Hopefully, she will leave you wanting to read more!

 Golf began as an elitist and male dominated sport, though women have figured in the sport from its earliest days. Mary, Queen of Scots, who ruled Scotland from 1542 to 1567, has been noted by some as the first woman to play golf, and gets credit for coining the term caddie. Mary Stewart looks at the evolution of the sport that Mark Twain called “a good walk spoiled.”

 Learn about the life and legacy of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States, highlighting his political career, personal life, and pivotal moments in history. Ben Ridings will also delve into a lesser-known aspect of his life: the summers he spent at Cape May Point.

 Exciting discoveries in classical music have emerged in the past year, including previously unknown works by Chopin and Mozart. Join Dr. Brenda Leonard as she delves into the fascinating stories of how these pieces were lost, rediscovered, and why their recovery matters today.