Cape May Stage Presents Lynn Cohen and Adam Wade in "How to Make a Rope Swing"

(Cape May, NJ) -– Cape May Stage, as part of their commitment to quality original theatre, is proud to announce another world premiere event. How to Make a Rope Swing, a new play written by Shawn Fisher, is a dramatic story about long-buried secrets in a Jersey Shore town, and features guest stage and screen performers Lynn Cohen and Adam Wade, along with Michael Basile (currently starring in Cape May Stage's Main Stage production of The Woolgatherer).  Part of Cape May Stage's Second Stage Series, How to Make a Rope Swing, will be performed on Monday October 17, at 8 p.m. at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse.

The story unfolds when the South Jersey town of Oakbranch is replacing the old schoolhouse. Local elders Delores Wright, the beloved town matriarch and former school principal, (played by Lynn Cohen; Sex and the City, Muncih, Social Security, Happy Days) and Bo Wells, a dedicated custodian and longest-serving African American school employee, (played by Adam Wade; Driving Miss Daisy, The Color Purple) have been selected to decide on a person after whom the new building should be named; a person who reflects the history and spirit of the town. As they come together in the soon-to-be-demolished old schoolhouse, they rediscover the circumstances of their first meeting there a half-century earlier.   It was 1951, a time when the school was first integrated and the region earned its nickname, "The Mississippi of the North".  Within the brick walls of the century-old building, a long-suppressed moment in the town's history surfaces and threatens to change the memory of the town and these people, forever.

Shawn Fisher has produced over one hundred shows as designer, director, producer or playwright.   His professional design credits include the New York productions of Seal Sings its Song, Cop Out, and Talking Dog and many plays and operas out west. At Cape May Stage he designed The Woolgatherer, Proof, Topdog/Underdog, and Happy Days among others.  As a playwright, Fisher's original scripts include SCOPE, How to Make a Rope Swing, and Do Not Hit Golf Balls Into Mexico.  A native of the Jersey Shore (Ocean City), he loves coming home to work with Cape May Stage. He earned his MFA in Theatre Design from Brandeis University and currently serves as a Professor and Head of Graduate Studies in Theatre at Utah State University.

Part of Cape May Stage's Second Stage Series, How to Make a Rope Swing will appear Monday, October 17th at 8 p.m. at the Robert Shackleton Playhouse located at 405 Lafayette Street in downtown Cape May.  Tickets are $10. Call (609) 884-1341 for reservations and information or visit the theatre's website, www.capemaystage.org.

Cape May Stage's Second Stage Series is presented through the gracious support of Chris and Dave Clemans.