[Originally published in the Star & Wave newspaper on September 10, 2025.]
By Roy Steinberg, Producing Artistic Director
Perhaps the most powerful tool a producing artistic director has is the ability to hire a guest director to tell a particular story and to decide who that guest director might be. We all know people who bring a certain sensibility to telling a story – one friend makes the same details funny, and another makes that story seem like a crisis. Think of Alfred Hitchcock or Woody Allen or Ridley Scott telling the same story and imagine what that final product would be.
When I arrived in Cape May in 2009 from Los Angeles, I knew I wanted to mount Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold…and the boys” because it was a poetic exploration of apartheid in South Africa and resonated with me about colonization and power and race. I had seen the work of Elizabeth Swain, a British woman working at the Antaeus Theatre in Glendale, California and asked her to come east to direct “Master Harold…”. She cast Gregg Daniel who was superb in the role of a waiter. The title is ironic. The “master” is a young white boy who is the son of the owner of a tea shop and the “boys” are the adult black men who work at the tea shop. Gregg and I have become friends over the years and artistic colleagues. He is the Artistic Director of Lower Depths Theater in LA and has come back over the years to Cape May Stage to direct “The Mountaintop” and “The Whipping Man”.
Bringing that first Guest Director brought a whole new group of people to Cape May Stage. The designer we found used the existing apse of the Cape Island Presbyterian Church as a scenic element with black and white tiles on the floor to make a statement. Now Gregg Daniel returns to direct “Dutch Masters” in a production I cast from a workshop that was done in Los Angeles.
In 2010, I asked about favorite directors and actors from the past at Cape May Stage and was told about Chris Dolman as a director and Scott Greer as an actor. Both have returned multiple times. Chris Dolman first directed “Lend Me a Tenor” as a Guest Artist with my wife, Marlena Lustik, and me in the cast along with Scott Greer. It won the Best Production of the Decade 2010-2020 from broadwayworld.com and remains one of our most successful productions. I turned the tables and directed Chris Dolman in “Boeing Boeing” that same season. Chris Dolman became an Artistic Associate and directed me in “Red” about Mark Rothko and directed “Barefoot in the Park” and “Adopt a Sailor – the Holiday Edition”. As a Guest Director, he has brought actors with whom he had professional relationships and as an Artistic Associate he has contacted and met with agents and actors and designers on my behalf before I meet with them.
I am always looking for accomplished directors to bring to Cape May Stage. Some artistic directors only hire beginning directors so nobody can threaten their position. I am the opposite. I only bring the best people I can find. I hired Austin Pendleton, the Tony Award winning director who directed Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on Broadway to come to Cape May Stage to direct a Canadian play called “Trying” by Joanna Glass. A photograph of that production is in our lobby and our recent production of “Sexy Laundry” had our Canadian playwright and her agent note that their countrymen is represented in our roster. Austin brought a Broadway set designer and a stellar cast to our Robert Shackleton Playhouse. That is what Guest Directors can do.
I wanted a new way of storytelling and so I brought a Guest Director who is a specialist in Asian Theatre to our production of “The 39 Steps”. Penny Bergman used Japanese kabuki methods to tell that story and returned this season to direct “Love Loss and What I Wore”, one of our most successful short run productions. Similarly, Scott Hitz used Bunraku Japanese puppetry to direct “The Little Prince” in a production that moved from us to the Bristol Riverside Theatre and ultimately to the New Victory Theater on 42 Street right next to “Spiderman”!
Marlena Lustik is my favorite Guest Director with a theatrical flair. Her “Billy Bishop Goes to War” using just boxes to create a World War One airplane was inspired. She went on to direct solo shows with women – including “Red Hot Patriot” about Molly Ivins with Georgette Timoney who was just in “Sexy Laundry” alongside her Broadway veteran husband. Marlena also directed Kate Hathaway in “Ann” about Ann Richards, the former Texas Governor and “At Wit’s End – the Erma Bombeck Story”. Since Marlena has a long musical theatre background on Broadway, I’ve asked her to direct musical pieces like “Merry Melodies” and “A Cape May Christmas”. Her direction of “A Tuna Christmas” served as a model for me when I re-mounted a second version because the first was so successful.
During Covid in 2020, we shut down and did virtual productions. The immediate years after that were challenging and so I directed all our productions to save money – I am already paid and don’t require additional salary. But now, we can begin to bring new voices back into our offerings.
Guest directors not only bring individual voices to our repertory, but they also introduce new artists. I am hopeful we can continue to bring the brightest stars into our community that is the magic of Cape May Stage.
Our fall show, “Dutch Masters,” runs through October 19 at Cape May Stage. Come see how the work of guest director Gregg T. Daniel by calling 609-770-8311 or visiting capemaystage.org for tickets.
Roy Steinberg is the Producing Artistic Director at Cape May Stage.
