Act Two

If all the world is truly a stage, then, for this story, Act One begins in 1988. The curtain opens and we see Michael Laird as he arrives in Cape May on a sunny Sunday morning as part of a charity bike-a-thon. When all the other participants returned home, Laird stayed behind and rode all over town. And after he had seen everything that Cape May had to offer, Laired allegedly said, “You know what this town needs? A theater.”

From this statement, an idea was born which would eventually develop into Cape May Stage, an equity theater company that grew from very humble beginnings. For its first 12 years Cape May Stage had moments of comedy and tragedy on and off the stage as it went through its growing phase – one of the biggest tragedies being the passing of Laird in 2001. But the theater carried on under the leadership of Laird’s successor, Michael Carleton. It not only survived, but thrived under Carleton, who nurtured it and helped the theater find its identity through a series of defining moments – far too many to number here.

Last year, many of those moments were remembered as the theater celebrated its 25^th anniversary with gala celebrations and enthusiastic applause. Yet, after the confetti was swept and pats on the backs exchanged, surely someone had to ask, “If all the world is truly a stage, then there has to be an Act Two, right?”

The answer to this question falls to Roy Steinberg, the Producing Artistic Director, who has been with Cape May Stage since the 2009 season. From the beginning of his tenure, Steinberg wanted to leave his own original mark.

“The first play I did here was Souvenir by Stephen Temperley,” Steinberg recalls. “It was a thrilling evening. The set was a huge gold frame. So it was a ‘high concept’ set as opposed to something literal. I was told it was the first time people had ever seen a set like that. In a funny way, it was a good transition into where we are going. From the very beginning, I wanted to do poetic theater. Not poetic in the sense that it has rhyming verses, but poetic in the sense of imagery. So the first play was a good example of that.”

Setting the “poetic” standard for the season from the first show has become the signature of Roy Steinberg’s leadership. And this year is no exception. “Our very first production of the season, The Mountain Top by Katori Hall, is almost like the epitome of where we are heading,” Steinberg said. “It’s a poetic play in the sense it takes place in a motel room the night Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. In the play, there is a pillow fight where the feathers of the pillow explode and it turns into rain. Even though we are in an interior of a motel room, we have flowers blooming through the floor. So there are lots of poetic imagery [in this play] and that’s where I see the future going.”

Another vision of the future started last year, when Cape May Stage began the National Playwright Symposium. This year, the symposium ran from May 11-15 and featured many Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwrights, including Terrance McNally, whose play Mothers and Sons is on Broadway. “He was just nominated for a Tony. He has, like, four already,” Steinberg said with a delighted laugh. 

Also featured this year was Amy Herzog, 2012 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play 4000 Miles; Ken Ludwig, who wrote Lend Me a Tenor and Moon over Buffalo, which Cape May Stage is presenting this season.  Israel Horovitz, who has been on Cape May Stage’s Artistic Advisory Board for many years, was also invited to the symposium. Horovitz’s play Line, is currently the longest running play in America and is still playing at the 13^th Street Theater in New York. 

Yet, with all the new ideas he has implemented, Steinberg is cognizant of the Cape May Stage tradition of doing multiple shows in multiple venues. “When I first came here, we were dark on Monday nights,” Steinberg recalled. “I thought if we had this extraordinary venue, we should use it. So for Monday nights, the Second Stage was conceived to complement what was happening on the main stage. For example, to go with the play The Mountaintop, we are screening two movies. One is called The March, which is about Martin Luther King. The other is called The Powerbroker, which is about American Civil Rights leader Whitney Young, whose daughter will be here as well.

“In addition,” Steinberg continued, “I wanted to bring in big name cabaret artists like Ann Hampton Calloway and Liz Calloway, as well as Maureen McGovern. Jarrod Spector from Jersey Boys and Anthony Rapp of RENT will be performing here. We have had an eclectic group, with everything from poetry readings to magicians to musicians.”

Yet, if he had to pick a favorite act, Steinberg says he would have to pick the one that featured a circus clown who did the entire Seven Samurai film as a one-person show in Japanese gibberish. “Kids loved it because he kept falling down,”Steinberg said. “But people who knew Kurosawa realized how brilliant he was because he got every camera angle and he would only change his masks. This is the reason for our Second Series: to bring people into the theater who would not normally come. People would come in to see Dominic Chianese [who played Uncle Junior on The Sopranos] sing Italian folks songs and say ‘This looks like an interesting place’ and wonder what else happens here.”

Steinberg also believes the theater isn’t just for the tourist visiting Cape May. He believes the theater should also engage the community. “I choose plays I believe in some way are either societal questions or ethical questions that we as a community are going through right now. Last season, the very first play we did was a play which was created for Cape May Stage called How to Make a Rope Swing. It dealt with a real event which happened in South Jersey years ago. The playwright, who’s from Cape May County, took the event and wrote about it. Yet the really interesting thing is that he made the play a leaping-off point for an audience discussion.” 

“We have formal talkbacks with the audience all the time,” Steinberg continued. “We also have informal discussions after almost every show. The actors come out and will discuss the play at the theater. But sometimes the people who saw the show would discuss it with the actors when they see actors at local shops throughout town. So the play becomes a continual conversation in the community. And that’s what it’s all about.

“We always want to be entertaining in every sense of that word,” Steinberg adds. “Sometimes it’s with side-splitting comedies. And sometimes it’s entertaining and engaging your mind and your soul and spirit. We consider this 2014 season our second half of our 25^th anniversary. Cape May Stage was founded in 1988 by Michael Laird, but the first production wasn’t until 1989. So our 25^th anniversary is over two years. Last year was about paying honor to the past and using many people from previous productions. Now, we are looking forward to the future.” All the world is truly a stage. So let us sit back and relax, because Act Two is about to begin.