East Lynne Theater Company Artistic Director Craig Fols, center, posed with two valued board members, Bernadette Matthews and Alison Murphy, during East Lynne’s major fundraiser at the Lobster House last year.

(CAPE MAY, NJ) -- East Lynne Theater Company in Cape May has announced an exciting and varied mainstage season for 2024. They will be presenting three plays that will take the company in "A New Direction". Tea for Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty by Eric H. Weinberger and Elaine Bromka, Dial M for Murder adapted by Jeffery Hatcher from the original play by Frederick Knott and A Case for the Existence of God by Samuel D. Hunter.

Traditionally, East Lynne has been known for producing plays from America’s far past. Current Artistic Director Craig Fols, for whom 2024 marks his second full mainstage season, is propelling East Lynne toward a more modern catalog of American plays. To that end, Fols has labeled the season’s theme “A New Direction.”

“We’re still very much an American theater, but no longer are we doing American theater of the past or plays about American history,” explains Fols. “We are respectfully breaking the mold.”

Tea for Three: Lady Bird, Pat & Betty by Eric H. Weinberger and Elaine Bromka. Tea for Three, co-written by Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Award-nominee Weinberger and stage-and-screen’s Bromka, is a 90-minute play about three very different First Ladies of the United States: Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford. Follow these women during their White House tenures from the aftermath of Camelot to the Watergate scandal and through mental and physical health struggles, respectively. Tea for Three opens June 19 and runs 7:00pm Wednesdays through Saturdays through July 6, except July 3 and 4. There will be special showings at 7:00pm on Tuesday, July 2, and a 4:00pm “tea time” matinee Thursday, July 4.

Dial M for Murder, newly adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher, winner of a prestigious Charles MacArthur Fellowship Award, from the original by Frederick Knott. Fans of thrillers and murder mysteries will thoroughly enjoy Hatcher's modern adaptation of Knott's play Dial M for Murder, which was a staple of the American theater for decades. Knott also wrote the screenplay for Dial M for Murder, which was famously directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hatcher’s more updated version made its world premiere at the Old Globe in San Diego in 2022 and has been sweeping the country ever since. Dial M will take place 7:00pm Wednesdays to Saturdays from July 31 to August 31.

A Case for the Existence of God by Samuel D. Hunter. Fols calls A Case for the Existence of God by Hunter, also a MacArthur Fellowship Award winner, “one of the best plays” he has ever seen. East Lynne’s first real contemporary play revolves around two men—one Black, one white; one straight, one gay; both single fathers of daughters—who, through empathy and humor, form an unlikely bond within the walls of an office cubicle. Interesting fact: Hunter also wrote the award-winning play The Whale, as well as the movie of the same name that starred Brendan Fraser. A Case for the Existence of God will run 7:00pm Wednesdays to Saturdays, September 18 through October 12.

Fols is extremely excited for the coming season, for which he took great care to strike a balance between stories of gender and race so that there is something for everyone who lives and visits Cape May. It is something that he will continue to strive for, especially as East Lynne prepares to move into its new home—the Clemans Theater at Allen AME Church— in the coming years.

“I will always work to have a range of shows that thrill and inspire our existing and new audience members, as well as honor the African-American community of Cape May,” says Fols.

Tickets are on sale now and are priced at $35 for general admission, $30 for seniors. Students and military are $20. Season tickets can be purchased for $100 through June 15. Additional spring, summer and winter shows will be announced soon.

East Lynne Theater Company is in residence at Cape May Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May. More information and ticket reservations can be found at EastLynneTheater.org.

Founded in 1980, East Lynne Theater Company has been named by The New York Times as one of the Top 75 summer theaters in North America and recognized by the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly as “one of the state’s most important cultural treasures.” In 2023, understanding that the American Theater is itself a growing work of art, East Lynne expanded upon its mission of “presenting and preserving America’s theatrical heritage” by including plays about America today. Currently housed in the Cape May Presbyterian Church, East Lynne’s “New Beginnings Capital Campaign” is raising funds to help renovate its future home in Cape May’s historic Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).