‘Heroes of Cape May’ Brings History Alive, Students Dance, Sing, Perform on Stage

ERMA – They’re having fun, don’t tell them they’re learning. 
That was the case Feb. 8 as “Heroes of Cape May,” three fact-based skits of local interest, were presented in music, dancing, singing and acting by students of Lower Cape May Regional School District.
The morning event was held in the Paul Schmidtchen Theater at Lower Cape May Regional High School.
The event was this year’s “Song-to-Symphony Project” created in partnership with Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities, Inc. and the school district. It is part of the outreach for the Cape May Music Festival, funded in part by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
Backed by the Richard M. Teitelman Middle School Chorus, Lower Cape May Regional High School Concert Choir and the school’s Symphonic Band, dancers from the high school’s dance class whirled and soared across the stage.
Revolutionary War
The first skit, set in the Revolutionary War, featured a fearless Rebecca Stillwell, portrayed by Katie Beane-Fox, and her courageous canine, Guss, played by Eva Reichle.
Stillwell warded off a British raiding party by firing cannon that was laden with grapeshot and sparing the Upper Precinct of Cape May County.
Civil War
Fast forward about 90 years in the twinkling of an eye, and the stage was filled with young women wearing broad-brimmed hats. They talked of the imprisonment of Cape May’s Col. Henry Sawyer, played by Evan Smilyk, in a Confederate prison, slated for doom.
Harriet Sawyer, his wife, played by Cassidy McFadden, traveled to Washington to plead with President Lincoln, portrayed by Bobby Murphy, for her husband’s life.
The president recalled the capture of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s son and arranged a prisoner swap, Sawyer for Lee.
After the war, Sawyer returned home and built the Chalfonte Hotel in 1876, which remains to the present.
Nazi-U-boats
An elderly couple on Cape May’s boardwalk looks to sea and recalls the days of World War II and the surrender of a German U-boat off the coast.
The elderly couple brought to life by Kelly Henderson and Quinn Dougherty, looked back to recall those perilous, younger days.
The younger couple was portrayed by Colleen Daly and Evan Smilyk, danced even as the U-boat prowled the dark ocean just miles away.
The script for the skits was by David Bailen. Music, lyrics, and orchestrations were by Eliot Bailen.