WHO WE ARE
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Frank Smith (President) was a detective with the Philadelphia Police Department before he bought The White Dove Cottage Bed and Breakfast on Hughes Street in Cape May. From 1990 until he sold it in 2002, he greeted guests and even helped plan events such as family reunions and weddings. From 2003-2007, he was a travel consultant for the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, and from 2007-2013, a host at Aleathea’s Restaurant at The Inn of Cape May. He was the assistant manager at The Henry Sawyer Inn from 2014 until 2020, when the inn was sold and converted to a private home. He also conducted Murder Mystery Weekends at the Inn, like he did when he ran The White Dove. From 1992-1997, as a volunteer for Cape May MAC, he portrayed “Dr. Physick.”
Frank joined ELTC’s board in 1993 and served off-and-on as president from 1996-2016. He also was ELTC’s storyteller on “The Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides,” co-sponsored with MAC, from 2007-2017. Off-and-on from 1996 through 2022, he worked the ELTC box office and was the Volunteer Liaison who scheduled volunteers for house managing and ushering duties at performances, interacting with visitors at ELTC's tables at local fairs, distributing posters, and helping with fundraisers.
Frank joined ELTC’s board in 1993 and served off-and-on as president from 1996-2016. He also was ELTC’s storyteller on “The Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides,” co-sponsored with MAC, from 2007-2017. Off-and-on from 1996 through 2022, he worked the ELTC box office and was the Volunteer Liaison who scheduled volunteers for house managing and ushering duties at performances, interacting with visitors at ELTC's tables at local fairs, distributing posters, and helping with fundraisers.
Barbara Morris (Secretary) is a professor at St. John’s University in Queens, NY where she teaches 20th Century American Drama, Zora Neale Hurston: Harlem Renaissance, Orientation – Hospitality Management, and Creating and Operating a B&B Inn. While visiting Cape May, NJ, Barbara and her mother, Mary, fell so in love with this seaside town, that in 1992 they purchased an 1877 Victorian home. After lengthy renovations, it became The Henry Sawyer Inn, one of the town’s most popular B&Bs. With East Lynne Theater Company and Frank Smith, Barbara ran Murder Mystery Weekends at the Inn, garnering the honor of one of four top-rated such weekends in the country by "AM Magazine" in NYC. In 2021, she sold the Inn, which is now a private home.
Kathy Mottola (Treasurer) received her degree from Wesley College. Her varied career has offered her many interesting avenues of employment - Gimbels Department Store (Advertising), Philadelphia Flyers (Marketing/Sales) Publisher, Convention Coordinator Charles B. Slack, Inc. (Conference/Events Coordinator) and KYW-TV where she spent 17 years behind the scenes in Creative Services, Public Relations and as Office Administrator to the VP/GM. From 2010-2019, she was the secretary at the Cape May Presbyterian Church and was East Lynne Theater Company's (ELTC) office assistant from 2018 through 2022. Kathy's interests include reading, bridge, mahjong, singing and attending the theater. Her son, Michael, worked box office and helped with set-ups and strikes for ELTC from 2016 through 2022.
Amanda Sykes (Graphic Designer) is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, a small business owner, stage manager, and performer. After receiving her Bachelors of Arts in Acting in 2020, Gayle Stahlhuth (when she ran East Lynne Theater Company) hired her to perform in a virtual reading of Something to Vote For; work backstage and onstage in Vaudeville Variety, Tales in the Backyard and Poe by Candlelight; assistantant stage manage Dorothy Parker: A Certain Woman, assistant direct The 2021 Summer Student Workshop’s The Reluctant Dragon, and stage manage Who Am I This Time? (and Other Conundrums of Love and Possessing Harriet in 2022. She was also the storyteller for Cape May MAC's Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides. When she is not working in theater, she is running her small business on Etsy and raising her daughter with her husband, Zach. She is a member of Actors' Equity Assocation.
FOUNDER and PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Gayle Stahlhuth is an actor, director, playwright, producer, storyteller, and teacher. From 1999 through 2022 she helmed 125 shows and directed most of them as the producing artistic director of the nonprofit Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company (ELTC) in Cape May, NJ, and currently is the founding artistic director of another nonprofit theater, Classic American Tales. She has performed off-Broadway (Manhattan Theatre Club, etc.) in national tours (Cabaret, Oliver, etc.), regional theater (Gateway Playhouse in Long Island, etc.), television (various soaps, etc.), radio (commercials and Voice of America), and on the Chautauqua Circuit. Her plays have been performed at such places as the NYC International Fringe Festival, The Samuel French One-Act Festival, Arvada Center in Denver, Pennsylvania Stage Company, the Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis, ELTC, and at several universities. Her work has been praised in “The Philadelphia Inquirer,” “The Newark Star-Ledger,” “The New York Times,” and “The Wall Street Journal.”
For her writing and/or performing, she’s been awarded commissions from The Smithsonian Institution, the Missouri and Illinois Humanities Councils, Theatreworks/USA and other theaters, and grants from the NJ Humanities Council, the NYS Council on the Arts, and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. Solo shows she's created and toured (many bookings through Arthur Shafman International) include Lou: The Remarkable Miss Alcott, The Awakening adapted from Kate Chopin, Eve's Diary from Mark Twain, and A Trunk Without a Label
about Catharine Beecher, and the two-person Not Above a Whisper about Dorothea Lynde Dix. From 2007 through 2022, she presented ELTC's Christmas productions, adapting and performing stories by famous writers, bringing to life thirty-plus characters in her memorized, unique storytelling style.
Her personal monologue, Goin’ Home, about cleaning out her mother’s Indiana home, has been included in theaters’ solo festivals. A selection from another personal piece, One Step at a Time about caregiving for her husband, was presented at Premiere Stages in April 2024, and Gayle presented the full monologue at Cape May Stage in October 2024. When she submitted the script to the International Auto/Biography Association of the Americas, she was invited to be part of its bi-annual conference in 2025.
Participating in REVNJ, a statewide celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, Gayle has written a solo show about the early days of the Revolution which she begins to tour in 2026. Edna Ferber’s great-niece is helping her find venues for her Fabulous Ferber. She is also teaching playwriting and acting workshops, lecturing, performing, and producing for Classic American Tales.
In the early 1980’s, Gayle was a pioneer in the artist-in-residence (AIR) movement to put art back into public schools, and is on the AIR rosters for NY, NJ, UT, and WY. She also conducted residencies through Plays for Living and Theater for a New Audience in NYC and started ELTC’s Summer Theater Workshop in 2007. For her work, she was selected as one of 200 artists from all arts disciplines to be listed in The Directory of Community Artists published by the National Endowment for the Arts.
She has directed-stage managed-designed/set lights-designed/built sets-designed/built costumes for off-off Broadway, cabarets, festivals and regional theaters; hired to start a dinner theater in Billings, MT and to produce a Medieval Festival at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore; made elephant blankets for Ringling Brothers Circus, and was an Emmy Awards’ judge in the field of broadcast news.
While still active as a performer, Gayle worked for the Sol Hurok Organization, setting up interviews and itineraries for artists such as Isaac Stern; was the accountant for Sha-Na-Na and other musicians; and worked undercover for white collar crime for a NYC detective agency.
She served on the board of ELTC from 1987-1997. From 1990-2002 she was a Council Member of The Episcopal Actors’ Guild, an organization that helps actors, regardless of religious affiliations. Since 2010, she has served on the board of the NJ Theatre Alliance, a service organization for theaters in the Garden State.
Gayle is a member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors’ Equity Association. The National League of Professional Women honored her in 2016 for her work as a theater professional and she is listed in the newest edition of The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre (2008).
Gayle enjoys her homes in West Cape May, NJ and Manhattan.
For her writing and/or performing, she’s been awarded commissions from The Smithsonian Institution, the Missouri and Illinois Humanities Councils, Theatreworks/USA and other theaters, and grants from the NJ Humanities Council, the NYS Council on the Arts, and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. Solo shows she's created and toured (many bookings through Arthur Shafman International) include Lou: The Remarkable Miss Alcott, The Awakening adapted from Kate Chopin, Eve's Diary from Mark Twain, and A Trunk Without a Label
about Catharine Beecher, and the two-person Not Above a Whisper about Dorothea Lynde Dix. From 2007 through 2022, she presented ELTC's Christmas productions, adapting and performing stories by famous writers, bringing to life thirty-plus characters in her memorized, unique storytelling style.
Her personal monologue, Goin’ Home, about cleaning out her mother’s Indiana home, has been included in theaters’ solo festivals. A selection from another personal piece, One Step at a Time about caregiving for her husband, was presented at Premiere Stages in April 2024, and Gayle presented the full monologue at Cape May Stage in October 2024. When she submitted the script to the International Auto/Biography Association of the Americas, she was invited to be part of its bi-annual conference in 2025.
Participating in REVNJ, a statewide celebration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, Gayle has written a solo show about the early days of the Revolution which she begins to tour in 2026. Edna Ferber’s great-niece is helping her find venues for her Fabulous Ferber. She is also teaching playwriting and acting workshops, lecturing, performing, and producing for Classic American Tales.
In the early 1980’s, Gayle was a pioneer in the artist-in-residence (AIR) movement to put art back into public schools, and is on the AIR rosters for NY, NJ, UT, and WY. She also conducted residencies through Plays for Living and Theater for a New Audience in NYC and started ELTC’s Summer Theater Workshop in 2007. For her work, she was selected as one of 200 artists from all arts disciplines to be listed in The Directory of Community Artists published by the National Endowment for the Arts.
She has directed-stage managed-designed/set lights-designed/built sets-designed/built costumes for off-off Broadway, cabarets, festivals and regional theaters; hired to start a dinner theater in Billings, MT and to produce a Medieval Festival at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore; made elephant blankets for Ringling Brothers Circus, and was an Emmy Awards’ judge in the field of broadcast news.
While still active as a performer, Gayle worked for the Sol Hurok Organization, setting up interviews and itineraries for artists such as Isaac Stern; was the accountant for Sha-Na-Na and other musicians; and worked undercover for white collar crime for a NYC detective agency.
She served on the board of ELTC from 1987-1997. From 1990-2002 she was a Council Member of The Episcopal Actors’ Guild, an organization that helps actors, regardless of religious affiliations. Since 2010, she has served on the board of the NJ Theatre Alliance, a service organization for theaters in the Garden State.
Gayle is a member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, and Actors’ Equity Association. The National League of Professional Women honored her in 2016 for her work as a theater professional and she is listed in the newest edition of The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre (2008).
Gayle enjoys her homes in West Cape May, NJ and Manhattan.
