From The Artistic Director 2011

“All of the arts, poetry, music, ritual, the visible arts, the theater, must singly and together create the most comprehensive art of all, a humanized society, and its masterpiece, free man.”
Bernard Berenson

The chairman of National Endowment of the Arts has coined a slogan, “Art Works” to justify the spending of public money to support the arts in our great nation. Without a doubt, Cape May Stage stimulates our local economy not only by employing actors, directors, designers and administrators but also by supporting the local dry cleaners, lumberyards, electrical supply companies and hardware stores and retail clothing shops. Our patrons stay at Cape May’s Bed & Breakfasts, hotels and motels. They eat at Cape May’s restaurants and bars. They buy T-shirts and custard and fudge.  And yet a far more important reason for Cape May Stage to exist is sometimes overlooked.

The reason for theatre is to civilize us by experiencing the ethical and moral dilemmas that are presented in a play. We find a catharsis in “pity and fear” and find a release in the comedies. Cape May Stage endeavors to remind us of what it is to be human. Oscar Wilde said, “I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being”.

The theatre is a sacred place. We experience an event in real time with live actors. From Thespis (the very first actor) through the artists assembled on the stage before you today, storytellers stimulate our minds and uplift our souls. As you enter our gloriously restored Robert Shackleton Playhouse, you will notice that our building once housed a church which is most appropriate since western theatre began with medieval mystery plays emanating from the church.

Our 2011 season builds on our rich history of presenting award-winning plays combined with world premieres and audience favorites.  Our Second Stage brings some of the greatest talents from Broadway and Hollywood and you are part of the party!  The theater is so much more than bricks and mortar.  Martha Graham famously said, “Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.”

So welcome to this sacred place where surprise is the norm and action teaches us to “know thyself” a little better.

Roy Steinberg