Col. Lindbergh (Austin Begley) and Violet Sharp ( Tappany Hochman) Adela (Kelly Lake) the sob sister journalist, narrates a a Lindbergh tale
Now playing at the Off-Broadstreet Theatre through June 22 is Violet Sharp, a dramatic interpretation of events in the Lindbergh kidnapping that occurred in Hopewell in 1932.
The play tells the story of Violet Sharp, a maid who worked at the Morrow house when the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindberg was kidnapped from his bed while sleeping in their Hopewell home. A ransom was paid but the baby was never returned.
Sharp, who is being played by Hopewell native Tappany Hochman, became a “person of interest” after she lied to the police about her whereabouts on the night of the crime.
“I have been fascinated with the Lindbergh case for years,” said William Cameron, the author of the play. “I started getting interested in my late 20s or 30s, and I read about it in Jim Fisher’s “The Lindbergh Case” in 1995 or 1996. I was 40 then and started to plan to write about Fisher’s book. And then I found Violet Sharp.”
Cameronm said Sharp was a 27 year-old, British-born maid who worked in the Englewood home of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s parents. At the time Charles and Anne Lindbergh were moving into their newly built home on Stoutsberg-Worstville Road (now Lindbergh Road) in Hopewell.
“When the kidnapping happened, the police questioned the servants of both the Morrows and Lindberghs. When Violet Sharp was interviewed, she was jumpy. When they asked her where she was, she said she was at a movie, but couldn’t remember anything about it,” Cameron said.
Sharp’s nervousness piqued police interest.
“They brought her back in, and she confessed that she lied the first time. She had not gone to the movies; she went to a speak-easy, the Peanut Grill in one of the Oranges. She confessed that she lied, but she didn’t explain why,” said Cameron.
After the body of the Lindbergh boy was found on Rose Mount-Hopewell Road, the police order Sharp back for another to interrogation, this time with the politically connected Jersey City Police Inspector Harry Walsh, New Jersey State Police Chief Norman Schwartzkopf, and the famed aviator himself.
While the playwright admits that Sharp’s behavior during the first two interviews made it seem as if she was hiding something and involved, he does not believe she had anything to do with the crime.
“I wrote the play in an attempt to offer an alternative view to (what was believed) and tell her story.
“I try to make drama and try to make it a good play,” he says. In order to do so, he hones in on a nobler aspects of Charles Lindbergh’s character and his willingness to support people he had learned to trust. That gives the play internal and emotional conflicts that resonates and engages beyond the mystery.
Violet Sharp runs weekends through Sunday, June 22. For information call (609) 466-2766 or go online to off-broadstreet.com.
– Dan Aubrey
Now playing at the Off Broastreet Theater through June 22 is “Violet Sharp,” a dramatic interpretation of events in the Lindbergh kidnapping that occurred in Hopewell in 1932.
The play tells the story of Violet Sharp, a maid who worked at the Morrow house when the infant son of pilot Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindberg was kidnapped from his bed while sleeping in their Hopewell home. A ransom was paid but the baby was never returned.
Sharp, who is being played by Hopewell native Tappany Hochman, became a “person of interest” after she lied to the police about her whereabouts on the night of the crime.
“I have been fascinated with the Lindbergh case for years,” said William Cameron, the author of the play. “I started getting interested in my late 20s or 30s, and I read about it in Jim Fisher’s “The Lindbergh Case” in 1995 or 1996. I was 40 then and started to plan to write about Fisher’s book. And then I found Violet Sharp.”
According to Cameron, Sharp was a 27 year-old, British-born maid who worked in the Englewood home of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s parents. At the time the Charles and Anne Lindbergh were moving into their newly built home on Stoutsberg-Worstville Road (now Lindbergh Road) in Hopewell.
“When the kidnapping happened, the police questioned the servants of both the Morrows and Lindberghs. When Violet Sharp was interviewed, she was jumpy. When they asked her where she was she said she was at a movie but couldn’t remember anything about it,” Cameron said.
Sharp’s nervousness piqued police interest. “They brought her back in, and she confessed that she lied the first time. She had not gone to the movies; she went to a speak-easy, the Peanut Grill in one of the Oranges. She confessed that she lied, but she didn’t explain why,” said Cameron.
While the playwright admits that Sharp’s behavior during the first two interviews made it seem as if she was hiding something and involved, he does not believe she had anything to do with the crime. “I wrote the play in an attempt to offer an alternative view to (what was believed) and tell her story.
“I try to make drama and try to make it a good play,” he says. In order to do so, he hones in on a nobler aspects of Charles Lindbergh’s character and his willingness to support people he had learned to trust. That gives the play internal and emotional conflicts that resonates and engages beyond the mystery.
Violet Sharp runs weekends through Sunday, June 22. For information call 609- 466-2766 or visit www.off-broadstreet.com.
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