Classic American Tales

03/23/2026

"Margaret's Diary During a Revolution" has taken off! Wednesday, it had its premiere at Cape May MAC's Lunch and Learn, and yesterday, it was at the Revolutionary landmark, the Steuben House in New Bridge Landing, NJ. Both locations had full houses! Next up, is a performance at historic Peachfield in Westampton, NJ on May 3.

I've learned a great deal by working on Margaret Morris's diary that she kept from 1776-1777 and other research, but there is so much more to learn! I still have questions to answer for myself, and audience members trigger other paths of research. It is definitely a work in progress and I enjoy doing the work.

Thank you Naomi Weinberg for taking photos yesterday in the lovely Steuben House after the show. In case you are wondering, yes, George Washington slept there.

Gayle Stahlhuth, Artistic Director

03/02/2026

Classic American Tales presents “Margaret’s Diary During a Revolution”

“Before we retired to bed, an attempt was made to teach the children to pronounce “vegates,” (how do you do?) like a German. Our good neighbors are a little concerned to think there is not one in the neighborhood who will be able to interpret for us when the Hessians are quartered here,” wrote Margaret Morris in her diary on December 21, 1776.

Margaret was living in Burlington, NJ when she began writing detailed entries in her diary on December 6, 1776. She knew General Washington had been defeated at the Battle of Long Island and was headed south, pursued by British General Sir William Howe. The Pennsylvania Navy, and the Pennsylvania and New Jersey militias were patrolling the Delaware River, preparing for war to come to Philadelphia. It was only a matter of time before Burlington, located along this river, not far from Philadelphia, would be invaded by Hessians. As many of her neighbors fled Burlington, Margaret remained, not knowing her fate, as she continued writing her story.

On Wednesday, March 18 at noon as part of Cape May MAC’s Lunch and Learn series, Classic American Tales (CAT) presents the premiere of Margaret’s Diary During a Revolution written and performed by artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth. The performance is free, and offered both live at the Cape May Lutheran Church Hall, 509 Pittsburgh Ave., Cape May, NJ, and by Zoom. No registration is required if attending in person. Here is the link where to register if attending via Zoom: https://capemaymac.org/plan/educational-outreach/lunch-learn/

The scene is set in a lecture hall in 1795 so that Stahlhuth is able to use Margaret’s diary along with facts that she would have learned later. The focus is from December 6, 1776 through January 3, 1777, which includes Washington’s triumph at the Battle of Trenton. Stahlhuth made a few tweaks to her diary when pronouns and some sentence structures were confusing, but other than that, it is Margaret’s diary.

Margaret’s Diary During a Revolution came to be because Sara Cureton, Executive Director of the NJ Historical Commission, asked if Stahlhuth could create a play about the American Revolution. Earlier, Cureton commissioned Stahlhuth to create a play to honor the 100th Anniversary of the United States entering WWI. She hired James Rana to write the play, A Year in the Trenches, while she served as dramaturg, producer, and director of the premiere at The First Presbyterian Church of Cape May in 2017. It was so successful that she brought it back in 2018.

To learn more about other locations for Margaret’s Diary During a Revolution and some of the 2026 Season, visit https://www.ClassicAmericanTales.org. CAT is a nonprofit theater with the mission to “Tell America’s stories one tale at a time.”
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Photo of Gayle Stahlhuth Photo credit: Katrina Ferguson

02/28/2026

"Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of The American Revolution:
Creating a performance from diving into a diary and other detailed research" - a note by Gayle Stahlhuth, Artistic Director

There is always something new to discover when plowing into history. I enjoyed putting my first solo play together based on the diaries and letters of Louisa May Alcott. Touring this production led to commissions from The Smithsonian Institution to create a two-person play about Dorothea Lynde Dix, from Pennsylvania Stage Company to write a musical about Walt Whitman, and from the Illinois and Missouri Chautauqua circuit to create a one-person play on Edna Ferber. There were other commissions and plays as I worked as an actor with various theaters.

In 2021, Sara Cureton, Executive Director of the NJ Historical Commission, asked if I could create a play about the American Revolution. I’d met Sara when John McEwen, Executive Director of the NJ Theatre Alliance introduced us when she was looking for someone to create a play to honor the 100th Anniversary of the United States entering WWI. I hired James Rana to write the play, “A Year in the Trenches,” while I served as dramaturg, producer, and director. An hour-long-reading version toured NJ in 2017, directed by Eric Hafen, and I directed the full-length premiere at The First Presbyterian Church of Cape May in the fall of that year. It was such a hit, that I brought it back in 2018. Below is the cast of the 2017 production: Jennie Bissell, Ryan Genualdi, Tara Reuter, Matt Baxter Luceno, Mike Newman, and Osborn Focht.

In 2023, I started searching for a person who was in New Jersey during the American Revolution. I discovered historic personalities, but couldn’t find enough about them to create much of anything. Then Margaret Morris's name began to appear, and I learned she had written a diary, which I found at the New York Public Library at 42nd Street.

Margaret’s grandson, John J. Smith, Jr., edited and published 50 copies of her diary for private distribution in 1836. In 1949, 350 copies of “Margaret Morris, Her Journal: With Biographical Sketch and Notes by John W. Jackson” was published. I read both. The more I dove into papers about the American Revolution in December 1776, the more I discovered scholars using quotes from Margaret’s diary to highlight a point. By 2025, Margaret was much easier to find via Google, but I was already well on my way with a script.

How fortunate Margaret’s diary exists because her grandson thought it important. Another lucky stroke, she wrote it to be read by one of her sisters, so she included dialogue and clever phrases to enhance her storytelling. Another wonder is, Margaret started these entries on the day before General Washington crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. While many fled from Burlington, the gateway to Philadelphia, Margaret stayed. The daily lives of townsfolk were upended by the comings and goings of patriot militias and Hessians. The Pennsylvania Navy that guarded the Delaware River, occasionally searched homes for Tories, including Margaret’s home, where she was, in fact, hiding a Tory at the time.

For “Margaret’s Diary During a Revolution” I set the scene in a lecture hall in 1795 so that I am able to use her diary along with facts that Margaret would have learned later. The focus is from December 6, 1776 through January 3, 1777, which includes General Washington’s triumph at the Battle of Trenton. I made a few tweaks to her diary when pronouns and some sentence structures were confusing, but other than that, it is her diary.

First performance of "Margaret's Diary During a Revolution" is on March 18 in Cape May. To learn more about this performance, other places where "Margaret" will be in NJ, and Classic American Tales' 2026 Season, visit http://ClassicAmericanTales.org

02/02/2026

Thank you and a few highlights from our 2025 Season

CAT's board and staff would like to thank everyone for the lovely support shown by attending events, making donations, and sending encouraging correspond. In 2025, we provided performances, lectures, and workshops, a total of 29 different events, with 16 different performers, engaging 899 people, ages 12 on up. Although CAT was created during the summer of 2023, we've already received two grants from the Cape May Division of Culture & Heritage, for which we are extremely grateful. We also thank OceanFirst Bank for its sponsorship and "Exit Zero" for help with advertising.

We thank The Dormer House, Cape May Public Library, and Rea's Farm for providing performance venues. A special thank you to Jennifer Swain, founder of End of the Road Theater, for giving us not only a place to perform, but also a place to rehearse until she had to close last August. At this venue in 2025, Phil Pizzi performed CAT's production of "Will Rogers Tonight" and another homegrown event, "Defending the Federal Theater" in which Hallie Flanagan, National Director of the Federal Theater Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), is questioned by Martin Dies, Chairman of the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities in 1938. Loretta Mestishen and Frank Smith performed under the direction of artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth, who also directed the "Will Rogers."

After much research and working with a variety of performers, CAT presented scenes written for Vaudeville, and works by Alice Childress, George Ade, Chester Himes, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Robert Benchley, among others, for Tales at The Dormer House. “Tales” also included two one-person plays that had been performed elsewhere before coming to Cape May. "Inside the Box, from Her Perspective," written by Lori Strelecki, was performed by Patricia Durante, who brought to life three women who were at Ford’s Theater on the night Lincoln was assassinated. "Thurber: Not Unmeaningless," conceived, compiled, and edited by Pat Dwyer and Sybille Bruun, involved Pat performing works by the iconic humorist, James Thurber. For 2026, we're looking at Vladimir Nabokov, Susan Glaspell, Zora Neale Hurston, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and "Nancy Drew," for starters.

To learn about the 2026 Season and those who have performed for CAT, visit https://www.ClassicAmericanTales.org CAT aims to Tell America’s Stories One Tale at a Time

01/16/2026

A NOTE FROM CAT’S ARTISTIC DIRECTOR GAYLE STAHLHUTH

Planning for Classic American Tales’ 2026 Season began in August of 2025, some of which has been up on CAT’s website since Thanksgiving. We are performing again at The Dormer House, The Cape May Public Library, and Rea’s Farm, along with a co-fundraising event with Animal Outreach at The Cape May Point Arts & Science Center in June featuring two-time Grammy nominee Guy Davis. I’m also writing a play about the American Revolution which will first be seen in Cape May in March before it goes elsewhere. For over forty years, I’ve been diving into American literature and history, and there is still so much more to learn!

One of the many reasons I love ice skating at Bryant Park is, it gives me great pleasure knowing that I’m skating over stacks and stacks of books housed by the beautiful Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, home to The New York Public Library between 40th and 42nd Streets on 5th Avenue, where I’ve spent many hours over the years, doing research. Another reason I like to skate at Bryant Park: It is near Library Way.

If you approach the New York Public Library, facing the lions (named Patience and Fortitude), from Park Avenue on 41st Street, don’t forget to look down on the sidewalk. That’s where you’ll find “Library Way.” Here, you’ll see beautiful bronze plaques designed by Gregg LeFevre, involving images inspired by the texts of 45 writers from 11 countries spanning 20 centuries. This project started in the early 1990s with librarians submitting many quotes and the final quotes determined by experts that included those at “New Yorker” magazine.

Among the Americans represented on Library Way are Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, William Styron, Thomas Jefferson, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Alfed Kazin, William Carlos Williams, Muriel Rukeyser, Robert Pinsky, Marianne Moore, Willa Cather, E.B. White, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, John Greenleaf Whittier, Gertrude Stein, Henry David Thoreau, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, and Garson Kanin. Here’s a photo I took of Kanin’s plaque with a quote from his comedy “Born Yesterday.”

To look at all the plaques, visit 42394240@N07/sets/72157626738626135/" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://www.flickr.com/photos/42394240@N07/sets/72157626738626135/

12/16/2025

It was a lovely evening, thanks to Carol and Kelly and everyone else who helped to set up and host and cook and serve food for "Christmas in the Barn." So glad I was asked back to perform after I was there for Halloween, and I've been asked back to perform in the spring. In the meantime, Merry Christmas and to a joyous New Year!

Outstanding performance of “The Gift of Magi” and “The Great Tree” by Gayle of Classic American Tales.

12/14/2025

Christmas in the Barn - Friday Dec 12th - Classic American Tales CAT Artist Director Gail hosts an evening of holiday storytelling with "The Great Tree" and "Gifts of the Magi". Featuring Lilliam’s Farm Kitchen, Obscura Brewery, and CM Winery. Free admission.

12/05/2025

Cold Supermoon in West Cape May Sky.

11/21/2025

Join us for two special Holiday Treats on Friday, December 12 and Sunday December 14. For more information and tickets for CHRISTMAS CHEER, visit https://www.ClassicAmericanTales.org/schedule.html

11/02/2025

Thank you, Rea's Farm! POE AND DINNER BY CANDLELIGHT went so well on Halloween, with over 100 seeing two readings of "The Tell-Tale Heart," that artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth will be performing Christmas stories at the Barn on Friday, December 12! Details coming soon. Thank you, Sally, for this photo and others!

10/23/2025

Classic American Tales presents Poe at Rea’s Farm on Halloween

Throughout the summer, Rea’s Farm offered special events on Friday nights, and this Halloween, October 31, is no different, except this time Classic American Tales’ artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth, will present Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

When Stahlhuth helmed East Lynne Theater Company, she created “Poe by Candlelight,” which involved a full evening of several actors reading stories by the master of the macabre, along with tasty treats and hot cider. Produced by Classic American Tales (CAT), this annual event continued at End of the Road Theater, which has since closed. Although only “The Tell-Tale Heart” will be presented on this Halloween at Rea’s Farm, there are two times to see it.

The location is 400 Stevens Street, West Cape May, NJ and the whole evening is from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. The Big Red Barn will be decorated for the spooky occasion, along with tables and chairs, and there is no entrance free. Bring the whole family and come in costume. There will be hayrides, pumpkin patch, corn maze, and the Farmer's Market Vendors include Obscura Brewery, Rita's, Nonna Lisa, Gigi's House, Exit 000 Skincare, Nauti Spirits, and more. Modestly priced dinners are available and bottles from Cape May Winery may be purchased.

To learn more about CAT’s current events, visit https://www.ClassicAmericanTales.org. Soon, the 2026 Season will be posted, too. CAT is a nonprofit theater with the mission to “Tell America’s stories one tale at a time.”