Gayle Stahlhuth

Gayle Stahlhuth is an actress, playwright, producer, and director who is an active member of the acting unions and the Dramatists Guild. As such, she has appeared in Off-Broadway and regional theatre, film, television, and on radio. In 1999, Gayle accepted the Board of Trustees’ offer to become the artistic director of East Lynne Theater Company (ELTC); an Equity professional theater with a mainstage production season from June-December and March in Cape May, NJ and a year-around touring an education component. She was asked to fill this post because of her knowledge of history as well as theater. The mission of ELTC is to produce provocative classics and history-based contemporary entertainment that deal with the uniquely American experience. Recently she directed Why Marry? the first play to win the Pulitzer Prize (1917) and had not been produced since 1922, and George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly’s To the Ladies! (1922) that had not been produced since 1926. She tours her own one-woman plays based on Louisa May Alcott, Catharine Beecher, Dorothea Dix, Edna Ferber, “Edna” from The Awakening, “Eve” from the writings of Mark Twain, and her own autobiographical Goin’ Home. As a storyteller, her favorites include Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, and the works of L. Frank Baum, O. Henry, and Alcott. She’s received commissions from The National Portrait Gallery, the Missouri Humanities Council, Theatreworks/USA and other theatres, and grants from the New Jersey Humanities Council and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. She is on the Arts in Education rosters of New York and New Jersey as well as Utah, and for her work, was selected to be in the Directory of Community Artists published by the National Endowment for the Arts. Gayle has extensive experience conducting workshops for teachers, designing curricula, directing new and classic plays for full production, and working with third grade through Elderhostel, including special populations. Residencies are tailored to the needs of teachers, curriculum, and/or the community. Examples are: improvising stories; creating scenes based on historic events like the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and local and/or oral histories; playwriting, acting, theater of the absurd, and Shakespeare. Class size is usually 15-30. The main cost is duplicating scripts. Reference: Erin Bowers, (801) 272-9962, regarding two years of residency work at Oakridge Elementary School in Salt Lake City. Best availability is February. Available for residencies, teacher training, extended projects,collaborations with other artists, and short term activities.