James Rana to Host Free Juggling Class, March 18

CAPE MAY – The award-winning Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company is hosting a free juggling class with James Rana March 18 from 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. His workshops have been so popular, that the company had to bring him back. Ages 8 on up are welcome, with or without juggling experience. Participants are asked to wear comfortable clothes, and juggling items will be provided. The workshop is held at The First Presbyterian Church of Cape May, 500 Hughes St., where ELTC is in residence.
Rana has worked for the Big Apple Circus and performed with numerous theaters in NYC, throughout the country, and in Europe, including The Royal Shakespeare Festival. For the past two years, his adaptations of “The Poe Mysteries,” in which he also performed, and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” premiered at ELTC, and currently he is adapting “Zorro!” for another ELTC world premiere this summer.
Earlier in the same day, he’s teaching juggling to fourth and fifth grade students as part of Wildwood School District’s After-School Program. Since the inception of this program in October of 2012, ELTC’s artists-in-residence have been teaching theater workshops in Wildwood, two days a week during the school year. The residency involves student performances, admission-free to the public, the most recent of which was on Dec. 5 at Wildwood High School.
Although the juggling class is free, reservations are appreciated and requested, and may be made by contacting ELTC at 609-884-5898 or by e-mail at eastlynneco@aol.com.
Meanwhile, the student production of “The Reluctant Dragon,” adapted from the Kenneth Grahame classic and directed by ELTC’s artistic director, Gayle Stahlhuth, is at 7:00p.m. on Wednesday, March 12 at West Cape May Elementary School, 301 Moore St. in West Cape May, admission-free. On Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15 at 8:00p.m., ELTC presents “Holmes and Carter Mysteries,” two radio-style productions with two great detectives: “Sherlock Holmes Adventure of the Copper Beeches” and “Nick Carter and the Strange Dr. Devolo.” General admission is $25; students are $15; and anyone age 12 and under is free. Monday, March 17, is the only audition day in Cape May for ELTC’s 2014 Summer Season. On Tuesday afternoon, March 18, one of ELTC’s popular touring shows, “Victorian Magic” with Robert Aberdeen has a free performance in Ocean County. For details, go to www.eastlynnetheater.org.
Funding for the juggling workshop, “The Reluctant Dragon,” and “Victorian Magic” is through New Jersey Theatre Alliance’s “Stages Festival.” For more information about this innovative company, visit www.njtheatrealliance.org. For an up-to-the-minute “Stages Festival” schedule, visit www.stagesfestival.org. ELTC and other Equity professional theaters throughout the Garden State not only have workshops and productions at their own venues, but are performing at a variety of locations.