Kliewer saw the need to change this, and created a company where theatergoers, actors, and directors could experience entertaining and provocative plays by American masters such as Washington Irving, Rachel Crothers, and Eugene O’Neill.
In 1996, Ohio State University asked to house the company's archives at its Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theater Research Institute.
The company was founded in North Jersey, calling the William Carlos Williams Center for the Performing Arts in Rutherford its home, until the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC) asked ELTC to move its production season to Cape May, in far South Jersey.
In 1998, after the death of Founding Artist Director Warren Kliewer, the Board of Trustees asked Gayle Stahlhuth to lead the company.
[5] The company employs members of Actors' Equity Association, mostly coming from New York City and North Jersey.