Photo of Frank Smith, performer for ELTC’s and MAC’s “Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides” running through Dec. 31. Photo Credit: Gayle Stahlhuth
“I will go and tend my geese!” screamed the mayor’s daughter wearing a goose-girl costume. Ever since she and other children put on costumes for a party, they behaved like the costumes dictated. This was the doings of a strange little costumer in “The Christmas Masquerade” by Mary Wilkins Freeman. Will the mayor’s daughter be forever a shepherdess, and the cobbler’s son a prince?
This tale is one of two that are part of the repertoire of the “Ghosts of Christmas Past Trolley Rides,” co-sponsored by Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) and East Lynne Theater Company. The other ghostly story will either be Frank R. Stockton’s “Old Applejoy’s Ghost,” about a spirit who wants to have Christmas in his old house again, or Nathanial Hawthorne’s “Snow Image,” in which two children create a real playmate out of snow – or do they?
The tales were adapted by ELTC’s artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth and once more, Frank Smith is the storyteller. He also heads the Murder Mystery Weekends co-sponsored by the Henry Sawyer Inn and ELTC.
Through Dec. 31, listen to these tales while the twinkling lights of the homes and streets are seen through the windows of the heated trolley. Rides begin and end at the Washington Street Mall Information Booth. Tickets are $12/$8. Call MAC for reservations at (609) 884-5404.
On ELTC’s mainstage is “Louisa May Alcott’s Christmas” starring Gayle Stahlhuth, through Dec. 9 at the First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May. For information/reservations, call (609) 884-5898 or visit eastlynnetheater.org.