Michèle LaRue Brings Gilded Age Stories to Cape May Stages

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LaRue will perform works by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Sarah Orne Jewett at Dormer House and Historic Cold Spring Village.

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Professional actress Michèle LaRue, a Cape May favorite since the early days of the original East Lynne Company, brings her popular Tales Well Told to CAT and to Historic Cold Spring Village, Thursday, June 18, and Saturday, June 20.

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On Thursday, June 18, 4:00 p.m., LaRue will perform "The Parrot" and "Miss Esther's Guest," at Dormer House, 800 Columbia Avenue, Cape May, NJ 08204 for Classic American Tales (CAT). The teatime event features home-baked treats and beverages. Adults: $12. Dormer House guests or age 12 & under: free.

In Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's "The Parrot," a disillusioned spinster is avenged by her feathered friend. In Sarah Orne Jewett's "Miss Esther's Guest," an unexpected visitor is delightfully welcome.

In their time Freeman and Jewett were as famous as Mark Twain . They wrote scores of stories about the small-town and country people they knew and observed so well. In our time, these stories live again in performance: "You were marvelous!!! My how things haven't changed in the last 100 years!" (Queens Book Club, Cape May).

On Saturday, June 20, 1:00 p.m., Historic Cold Spring Village, at 735 Seashore Road, Cape May, presents LaRue in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's The Revolt of "Mother": Forty years ago, Adoniram Penn promised his wife that he would build a proper house on their New England farm. He even showed her the spot. That was early in their marriage. Now, as their eldest child prepares for her wedding, the family still crams into the old, shabby cottage . . . and Father is building a barn where the new house should be. It's the last straw for Mother, and Father's in for a surprise. Village General admission. Adults: $16. Children 4-12: $12. Children under 4: Free.

Michèle LaRue tours nationally with her Tales Well Told, stories from America's Gilded Age. Her fascination with this period grew from her work in Cape May, with the original East Lynne Company-founded in 1980 by her late husband, Warren Kliewer, to revive "earlier" American plays and literature.

LaRue, a Chicago native, returned to the New Jersey of her ancestors, long ago. A graduate of University of Kansas and longtime member of Actors' Equity and SAG-AFTRA, she has performed with New York and regional theatres, most recently playing the captivating Lettice in Peter Schaffer 's Lettice and Lovage. As a writer and editor, LaRue has collaborated on many notable theatre books and periodicals.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/new-jersey/article/TALES-WELL-TOLD-to-Return-to-Cape-May-with-Michle-LaRue-at-CAT-and-Historic-Cold-Spring-Village-20260607)._