WHO WE ARE
THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Frank Smith (President) was a detective with the Philadelphia Police Department before he bought a house in Cape May and turned it into The White Dove Cottage Bed and Breakfast on Hughes Street. 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.
FOUNDER and PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Gayle Stahlhuth has performed off-Broadway (Manhattan Theatre Club, etc.) in national tours (Cabaret, Fiddler, etc.), regional theater (Gateway Playhouse in Long Island, etc.), television (various soaps, etc.), radio (jingles and Voice of America), and on the Chautauqua Circuit. As Producing Artistic Director of East Lynne Theater Company from 1999 - 2023, along with her husband, Lee O'Connor, the Technical Director from 1999 - 2021, she produced 120 shows, including 22 world premieres and 12 NJ premieres, and directed most of them. Her own adaptations for ELTC include Tales by Twain, that also ran at Surflight Theatre; Spoon River, based on the famous Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, and The Ransom of Red Chief based on O. Henry's classic tale. Excellent reviews for her work as a director and performer at ELTC appeared in "The New York Times," "The Philadelphia Inquirer," and other publications in print and online, as well as PBS TV Station WHYY.
"Gayle Stahlhuth’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace crackles flawlessly. . . The performances of Ms. Dawson and Ms. Stahlhuth are good enough to withstand direct comparison with those of Jean Adair and Josephine Hull, who created the roles of Abby and Martha Brewster on Broadway and re-created them in Frank Capra’s 1944 film version, and their colleagues provide deft support." - Terry Teachout for "The Wall Street Journal" (2018)
One-person plays that she's written and performed in NYC and throughout the country include Lou: The Remarkable Miss Alcott, Eve's Diary, based on the works by Mark Twain, Fabulous Ferber, about Edna Ferber, A Trunk Without a Label about Catharine Beecher, The Awakening, based on Kate Chopin's novel, and Goin' Home, about cleaning out her mother's home after she died. Her two-person Not Above A Whisper, about Dorothea Lynde Dix, she performed with Lee O'Connor. It was commissioned by The Smithsonian Institution, where it was first performed and then went on the road due to funding mostly from mental health associations throughout the country.
In the early 1980's, she was a pioneer in the artist-in-residence movement to put art back into public schools. For her work, she was selected as one of only two hundred artists from all arts disciplines to be listed in the "Directory of Community Artists" published by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Throughout the years she has directed-stage managed-designed/set lights-designed/built sets-designed/built costumes for a variety of off-off Broadway shows, NYC cabarets, festivals and touring productions; asked to start a dinner theater in Billings, MT; hired to produce a Medieval Festival at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore; made and rebuilt elephant and llama blankets for Ringling Brothers Circus; been an Emmy Awards’ judge in the field of broadcast news; and worked undercover for white collar crime for a NYC detective agency.
Gayle has been awarded commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, the Missouri and Illinois Humanities Councils, and grants from the NJ Humanities Council, the NYS Council on the Arts, and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, Actors' Equity Association, and the League of Professional Women honored her in 2016 for her work in theater.
She served on the board of the Episcopal Actors' Guild (open to all denominations) from 1988 (the beginning of the AIDS crisis) though 1999. At different times, she served as the Secretary and Finance Chair. Currently, she is serving on the board of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance as emeritus, having served for 14 years as an active member, mostly on the Membership Committee.
At the moment, Gayle is writing a one-person play about caregiving, and a four-person play about living with her husband who had PTSD. Note: there is humor and an uplifting ending in both plays.
Photo by Katrina Ferguson.
"Gayle Stahlhuth’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace crackles flawlessly. . . The performances of Ms. Dawson and Ms. Stahlhuth are good enough to withstand direct comparison with those of Jean Adair and Josephine Hull, who created the roles of Abby and Martha Brewster on Broadway and re-created them in Frank Capra’s 1944 film version, and their colleagues provide deft support." - Terry Teachout for "The Wall Street Journal" (2018)
One-person plays that she's written and performed in NYC and throughout the country include Lou: The Remarkable Miss Alcott, Eve's Diary, based on the works by Mark Twain, Fabulous Ferber, about Edna Ferber, A Trunk Without a Label about Catharine Beecher, The Awakening, based on Kate Chopin's novel, and Goin' Home, about cleaning out her mother's home after she died. Her two-person Not Above A Whisper, about Dorothea Lynde Dix, she performed with Lee O'Connor. It was commissioned by The Smithsonian Institution, where it was first performed and then went on the road due to funding mostly from mental health associations throughout the country.
In the early 1980's, she was a pioneer in the artist-in-residence movement to put art back into public schools. For her work, she was selected as one of only two hundred artists from all arts disciplines to be listed in the "Directory of Community Artists" published by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Throughout the years she has directed-stage managed-designed/set lights-designed/built sets-designed/built costumes for a variety of off-off Broadway shows, NYC cabarets, festivals and touring productions; asked to start a dinner theater in Billings, MT; hired to produce a Medieval Festival at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore; made and rebuilt elephant and llama blankets for Ringling Brothers Circus; been an Emmy Awards’ judge in the field of broadcast news; and worked undercover for white collar crime for a NYC detective agency.
Gayle has been awarded commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, the Missouri and Illinois Humanities Councils, and grants from the NJ Humanities Council, the NYS Council on the Arts, and the Mid-Atlantic Foundation for the Arts. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, SAG-AFTRA, Actors' Equity Association, and the League of Professional Women honored her in 2016 for her work in theater.
She served on the board of the Episcopal Actors' Guild (open to all denominations) from 1988 (the beginning of the AIDS crisis) though 1999. At different times, she served as the Secretary and Finance Chair. Currently, she is serving on the board of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance as emeritus, having served for 14 years as an active member, mostly on the Membership Committee.
At the moment, Gayle is writing a one-person play about caregiving, and a four-person play about living with her husband who had PTSD. Note: there is humor and an uplifting ending in both plays.
Photo by Katrina Ferguson.
