Cape May history comes to life at the world premiere of “A Cape May Christmas,” opening Friday, Nov. 27 at Cape May Stage. Additionally, on Saturday, Nov. 28, Cape May Stage presents “The Twelve Dates of Christmas” at Congress Hall. Both plays were created by women playwrights, the sixth and seventh productions in a season of all-female playwrights in 2015.
In “A Cape May Christmas,” written by Marlena Lustik and directed by Roy Steinberg, Santa and Mrs. Claus take the audience on a family-friendly journey through local history, during which they converse with the ghosts and spirits of many of the historic characters who spent past Christmases here. Among them are Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, the seventeenth century Dutch explorer who surveyed the cape, Colonel Henry Sawyer, the Civil War hero who built Cape May’s Chalfonte Hotel in 1876, and Harriet Tubman, the African-American abolitionist and pre-Civil War conductor of the Underground Railroad who worked in Cape May as a cook and laundress.
“This is a delightful play that ought to be seen by anyone who’s familiar with local history and the fascinating people who’ve made Cape May their home over the centuries,” said Steinberg, Cape May Stage’s artistic director.
“A Cape May Christmas” runs through Jan. 2, with a half-price holiday special scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 22. There’s also a half-price senior matinee on Saturday, Dec. 12 and a pay-what-you-wish performance on Friday, Dec. 18. For tickets, visit CapeMayStage.org or call (609) 770-8311.
Opening Nov. 28 at Congress Hall is “The Twelve Dates of Christmas,” a poignant, adult-themed comedy about how difficult the holiday season can be when your personal life isn’t what it ought to be. In the play, a woman discovers that her fiancé is cheating on her when she catches him on national TV kissing another woman at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and she then navigates a year’s worth of hapless holidays and luckless romances amid the colorful characters that make up her family.
“The Twelve Dates of Christmas” was written by Ginna Hoben and stars Iraisa Ann Reilly, the talented actress who has appeared before at Cape May Stage in Blithe Spirit in 2014 and Dead Man’s Cell Phone in 2015.
“The Twelve Dates of Christmas” runs through Dec. 30. Tickets are $25. For tickets, visit the Special Events page at CapeMayStage.org or contact the concierge at Congress Hall.