Lantern Theater Company announces its 2016-2017, season featuring an ambitious and eclectic mix of classical and contemporary work, including: Mrs. Warren’s Profession by George Bernard Shaw, An Iliad adapted from Homer by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, Informed Consent by Deborah Zoe Laufer, William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord by Scott Carter.

According to Lantern’s Artistic Director Charles McMahon: “Our 2016/17 season offers compelling plays with timely themes presented through thoughtful and intimate storytelling. We are excited to collaborate with some of Philadelphia’s finest artists again this season, including Mary Martello, Peter DeLaurier, and Liz Filios. We are also thrilled to welcome new artistic partners to the Lantern – James Ijames is one of the city’s most prominent up-and-coming directors, and Tina Packer not only brings expertise, but truly understands and supports our educational mission through our work with Shakespeare.”

Lantern Theater Company is located at St. Stephen’s Theater at 10^th and Ludlow Streets in Center City Philadelphia.  More information is available at lanterntheater.org or 215-829-0395.  5-play Subscriptions and Flex Packages are available now starting at $95 for renewing subscribers; new subscriptions go on sale April 1; and single tickets go on sale on August 15.

About Lantern Theater Company

Founded in 1994, Lantern Theater Company is committed to an authentic and intimate exploration of the human spirit in its choice of classics, modern, and original works.  The Lantern seeks to be a vibrant, contributing member of its community, exposing audiences to great theater, inviting participation in dialogue and discussion, educating audience members about artistic and social issues, and employing theatrical language and techniques to enrich learning in the classroom.  The Lantern has received 88 Barrymore Award nominations, winning 19 times, including the 2009 Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service for its innovative education program, Illumination.  Lantern Theater Company has been in residence at St. Stephen’s Theater at 10th & Ludlow Streets in Center City Philadelphia since 1996, managing the performance space and developing it into an affordable multi-purpose performing arts venue.  For more information, please visit lanterntheater.org.

Lantern Theater Company’s 2015/16 Mainstage Season

Beloved Philadelphia actress Mary Martello plays the title character in George Bernard Shaw’s funny, scathing, satisfying attack on social hypocrisy and the excesses of capitalism. With grit and wit, Mrs. Kitty Warren pulled herself out of the London slums and now lives a mysterious life abroad, providing her daughter Vivie with the education and means to grow into a smart, independent young woman of strong convictions. When Mrs. Warren returns, they discover that neither is the woman they thought they knew. Vivie starts to wonder, what exactly is Mrs. Warren's profession? And how will she react when she finds out where the money comes from?

The war in Troy is over – and the Poet saw it all. Back from the frontlines, he shares with us his enduring tale of unquenchable rage, gods and goddesses, bereaved wives and parents. Telling the story of the war, like the war itself, both seduces and ravages the Poet; it emboldens, weighs on, and threatens to overwhelm him.  Featuring Lantern favorite Peter DeLaurier and virtuoso musician Liz Filios, An Iliad weaves humanity’s unshakable attraction to warfare with the music of the muses, capturing the contradictory conditions of glory and violence with explosive and spellbinding modernity.

Jillian, an ambitious geneticist, is racing to solve scientific mysteries that could save both an ancient people and her own family. She jumps at the chance to do groundbreaking research on a native tribe in the Grand Canyon whose members are being ravaged by diabetes. But as she probes beyond the limits of her study, she threatens to destroy their most sacred traditions. At the same time, Jillian and her husband face off with a monster lurking in her own DNA – and possibly their 4-year-old daughter’s. This penetrating new play from acclaimed playwright Deborah Zoe Laufer asks: with science moving at breakneck speed and cutting-edge discoveries undermining our most sacred stories, how do we define who we are?

Famine threatens the city of Rome and the people’s hunger swells to an appetite for political change. A war hero from a powerful family, Coriolanus seems certain to be elected to the city’s governing Consul, but the people find his pride an unforgivable insult, exploding the long-simmering tensions between the elite few who defend and rule and the deprived masses. A timely portrayal of a fractured state and the ambitions of those causing its demise, Coriolanus is a story of radical class division and a compelling psychological portrait of both the title character himself and his politically savvy mother, Volumnia, played by internationally acclaimed actress, director, and author Tina Packer.

A Founding Father, a Victorian literary celebrity, and a Russian aristocrat-anarchist walk into a — no, it’s not the start of an old joke, but of a provocative new comedy that sets three of the world’s greatest thinkers against each other in a battle of wits and wills. Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Leo Tolstoy find themselves locked in a room that seems to have no exit.  Attempting an escape, they ransack the philosophies of their lives and work, searching for a truth that will set them free. But tempers flare, accusations fly, and they start behaving more like the Marx Brothers than brothers in arms. From playwright and former stand-up comedian Scott Carter (writer of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher), this whip-smart comedy examines what happens when great men of history are forced to repeat it.