Church Hill Theatre is the best little performance venue on the Eastern Shore. Our local communities are so lucky to have it. You will find that they have been busy during the covid shutdown restoring the interior with new cloth walls, new stage curtains and all new seating. Through the years it always continues to get better. Hope to see you there.” – Earl Lewin
Local playwright and director Earl Lewin has a long history with Church Hill Theatre. In 1991, CHT ran an ad looking for actors. Earl’s late wife Roberta read for Blythe Spirit and was cast as Madam Arcadi. Back then, there was no way for actors to get backstage from the downstairs dressing rooms except to exit the cellar to the outdoors, then enter the audience by the side door (thus entering the stage from the audience). Opening night, of course, it rained. The rain may have dampened the actors peopling the set that night, but it didn’t dampen the Lewins’ interest in the theatre. Earl went on to serve on the Board of Directors up until 2009, acting as board chairman on two separate tours of duty. Roberta accepted the new position of Executive Producing Director in July, 1992. She served five years promoting the theatre, during which she formed the Green Room Gang summer youth drama camp and even made a deal with the town to rent the front space of the Church Hill town hall building for a dollar a month.
For the past eight years, Church Hill Theatre has had the honor to produce an Earl Lewin world premiere annually. Recent titles include Miracle, Hitched, Orlando Rising, Saint Georges Blues, and Orlando Rising. Church Hill Theatre was also able to accommodate Earl during the Covid-19 pandemic shut down, supporting the premiere of Judge Knott via Zoom. Find out more about Earl’s plays at https://www.earllewinplaywright.com.
Earl Lewin is a Temple University graduate with a BA in theater and an MS in radio, television and film. He lives in Chestertown, Maryland. Earl published two one act plays with Bakers Plays after graduating college. Recognizing that wasn’t going to support a family, he turned his attention to making a living; initially running a film department for GE and then his own film/video business which he retired in 2001. Earl then turned his
focus back on his life long interest, playwriting; initially writing and producing a series of musical murder mystery dinner theater shows produced at Great Oak Resort, Maryland, in 2002; which then played in other venues for over a decade.
During that time he wrote book and lyrics for several musicals, a children’s show, The Christmas Pocket, a musical version of She Stoops to Conquer, an original musical, Celluloid, and The Burgundy Wine Mob, all produced locally. The latter two were also produced Off-Off Broadway in NYC. In 2013, Earl set a goal of one new script a year. 2021 represents the eighth he will have produced and directed at Church Hill Theatre in as many years. Earl also wrote four ten minute plays which were produced in the Short Attention Span Theatre at Garfield Center for the Arts, and one short play performed in the Midtown International Play Festival in NYC.
In addition to writing Earl has directed over thirty shows in his career; musicals including Tommy, Into the Woods, Annie and Oliver, and comedies and dramas by Oscar Wilde, Don Negro, Neil Simon, Ken Ludwig and others.