Lantern Theater Company Honored With Six Barrymore Award Nominations for 2015/16 Season

Lantern Theater Company was recognized today with six nominations for the 2016 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. The Lantern's award nominations span three productions from the company's 2015/16 season:

§ Photograph 51: Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play for Geneviève Perrier (Rosalind Franklin)

§ Oscar Wilde: From the Depths: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play for David Bardeen (Robbie Ross/Ensemble) and the Earl Girls Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for Shon Causer

§ As You Like It: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play for Ruby Wolf (Celia) and Outstanding Original Music for Michael Hahn

Lantern Theater Company's education program, Illumination, is an inaugural nominee for the new Victory Foundation Award for Outstanding Theatre Education Program, which recognizes the diverse, rich, and impactful education programs in the Philadelphia theater community, and seeks to put arts education and the future of the field front and center. Generously funded by the Victory Foundation, this special Barrymore Award includes a $7,500 cash prize for the recipient.

Illumination seeks to demonstrate the value of arts education in the development of critical thinking and other essential skills for life-long learning. This program provides an innovative, dramatic arts-focused approach to teaching literature and other non-arts curriculum with the goal of enhancing the value of education in the Philadelphia region. The Lantern believes strongly that arts education is a vital component of becoming an informed and well-rounded citizen. Given the current challenges facing the educational system in Philadelphia and its surrounding areas, the Lantern sees its education program as an essential civic duty and service to the community by engaging in arts education in classrooms and by providing Philadelphia students with the opportunity to see high-quality theatrical productions. The Lantern's education programming is made possible by major support from the William Penn Foundation, Lincoln Financial Foundation, the Forman Family Fund, the Hilda & Preston Davis Foundation, The Philadelphia Foundation Fund for Children, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.

About the Barrymore Awards

Presented annually by Theatre Philadelphia, the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre are a nationally recognized symbol of excellence for professional theater in the Greater Philadelphia region, honoring local artists and theatre companies while increasing public awareness of the richness and diversity of our city's thriving theater community. The 2016 Barrymore Awards will be held on Monday, October 24, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Merriam Theater. More information is online atwww.theatrephiladelphia.org.

About Lantern Theater Company

Founded in 1994, Lantern Theater Company is entering its twenty-third season with a record number of subscribers, its largest-ever operating budget at $1.3 million, and a growing community of theater artists engaged in its productions and audience enrichment events. In 2015, the Lantern launched the Lantern Theater Artist Fair Pay Initiative, a pioneering program to increase the compensation of its contract theater artists by 50% over the prior season. The Lantern seeks to be a vibrant, contributing member of its community, exposing audiences to great theater, inviting participation in dialogue and discussion, engaging audience members on artistic and social issues, and employing theatrical language and techniques to enrich learning in the classroom. Since the inception of the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre in 1995, the Lantern has received 94 nominations and 19 awards.

About the Lantern's 2016/17 Season

Lantern Theater Company opens its 2016/17 season on September 8 with Mrs. Warren's Profession, George Bernard Shaw's scathing comedy on social hypocrisy and the excesses of capitalism. Directed by Kathryn MacMillan and featuringMary Martello in the title role, the cast also includes David Bardeen, Andrew Criss, Daniel Fredrick, Claire Inie-Richards, and John Lopes. Theater critics and members of the press are invited to attend opening night on Wednesday, September 14 at 7 p.m.

The season continues with An Iliad, adapted from Homer by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare (November 10 - December 11, 2016), Informed Consent by Deborah Zoe Laufer (January 12 - February 12, 2017), Coriolanus by William Shakespeare (March 9 - April 16, 2016), and The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord (June 1 - July 2, 2017). Tickets, five-play subscriptions, and flex packages are now available online atwww.lanterntheater.org or by calling the Lantern Box Office at (215) 829-0395.

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