Lantern Theater Company Presents the Philadelphia Premiere of Obie and Lucille Lortel Award-Winning AN ILIAD

Lantern Theater Company continues its 2016/17 season with the Philadelphia premiere of An Iliad, written by Lisa Peterson and Tony Award-winning actor Denis O'Hare and based on Robert Fagles' acclaimed translation of Homer's Iliad. M. Craig Getting directs a cast that includes Barrymore Award-winners Peter DeLaurier and Liz Filios; Filios also serves as co-composer, working with Sound Designer Michael Hahn to create the evocative original music that scores the production. Theater critics and members of the press are invited to attend opening night on Wednesday, November 16 at 7 p.m. A full schedule is included in the fact sheet below.

"Every time I sing this song, I hope it's the last time," says the Poet with a heavy heart as he begins. The war in Troy is over - and the Poet saw it all. Back from the frontlines, he spins a tale of unquenchable rage, disputatious gods, and grieving widows. Telling the story of the war - like the war itself - both seduces and ravages the Poet; it emboldens, burdens, and threatens to overwhelm him. An Iliad weaves humanity's unshakable attraction to warfare with the music of the muses, capturing the contradictory conditions of glory and violence with spellbinding modernity.

Called "virtuosic" and "a cracking good yarn" by The New York Times and "incredibly powerful" and "stunning for its nuance, tenderness, and concrete detail" by The Guardian, An Iliad condenses Homer's classic tale of war into a modern evening of theater at its best: intimate, incisive, urgent. Actor Denis O'Hare (2003 Tony Award-winner for Take Me Out; two-time Emmy Award nominee for his work on American Horror Story) and director Lisa Peterson developed the play over a five-year period, winning Drama Desk, OBIE, and Lucille Lortel Awards for the original New York production in 2012. The play has gone on to productions across the country, winning major theater awards in Chicago, San Diego, and Seattle.

"Homer's story of the Trojan War has a remarkable and haunting resonance with our own time," said Lantern Theater Company Artistic Director Charles McMahon. "A great and confident power from the West is bogged down in a military stalemate that has continued for so long that no one remembers how or why it started - it's the original quagmire. The genius of the story is to involve us fully in the madness of war, making us feel the seductive pull of violence while shining an unflinching light on the terrible consequences of abandoning ourselves to rage."

"An Iliad is theatrical storytelling at its finest," said director M. Craig Getting. "Stripped down. Intimate. Powerful. I'm also excited to work with Peter DeLaurier and Liz Filios, longtime friends who will be appearing onstage together for the first time. They're both such gifted artists, and I know they will find the beauty in this devastating story about the perpetual allure and unconscionable cost of conflict." Getting has previously directed Lantern productions of Oscar Wilde: From the Depths, QED,Heroes, and A Skull in Connemara. An Iliad marks Getting's third collaboration with DeLaurier. Getting serves as the Lantern's education director, overseeing the award-winning Illumination education program as well as The Empathy Project, the Lantern's partner program with the Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University. He also co-hosts a popular weekly literary podcast called Overdue.

Tickets for An Iliad start at $24 and are available online at www.lanterntheater.org or by calling the Lantern Box Office at (215) 829-0395. Student tickets are $15 in advance; $10 student rush tickets are available 10 minutes before curtain with valid ID. Discounts are also available for theater industry professionals ($10 in advance or at the door), seniors 65 and up, groups of 10 or more, and U.S. military personnel. 4-Play subscriptions and flex packages are also available starting at $84. Lantern Theater Company is located at St. Stephen's Theater, 10th & Ludlow Sts. in Center City Philadelphia.

Cast and Production Team

Longtime artistic partner Peter DeLaurier (The Poet) has graced the Lantern stage in productions of Underneath the Lintel,QED, The Train Driver, Emma, Heroes, Uncle Vanya, and Skylight. His Lantern directing credits include 36 Views, The Island,Vigil, and Sizwe Bansi Is Dead. An Iliad marks a return to Homer's epic poem for DeLaurier; he originated the role of Patroklos in People's Light's Kabuki Achilles, an adaptation developed over a five-year period that took the Acting Company to central Cyprus and then on international tour that included performances in Cyprus, Hungary, and Philadelphia's Mythos Festival. DeLaurier is a seven-time Barrymore Award nominee and received the award twice: for his role as The Librarian in Underneath the Lintel at the Lantern and as Kent in King Lear at People's Light. He is an artistic associate at People's Light and has been a member of their resident company since 1991.

Liz Filios (The Muse) previously appeared on the Lantern stage as Rosalind in last season's production of As You Like It. Also a virtuoso musician, Filios is collaborating with Sound Designer Michael Hahn to create the original music that will score An Iliad. Filios' acting and musical directing credits have taken her to Italy, Canada, South Africa, and Indonesia, as well as local work with People's Light, The Wilma Theater, Arden Theatre Company, Theatre Horizon, Inis Nua Theatre Company, and the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival. She is an Independence Foundation Fellow and a six-time Barrymore Award nominee, winning the 2014 F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Theatre Artist and back-to-back awards for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Musical in 2014 and 2015.

The talented design team for An Iliad includes scenic designer Meghan Jones, costume designer Natalia de la Torre, lighting designer Shannon Zura, and Sound Designer and co-composer Michael Hahn, who received a 2016 Barrymore Award nomination for his original music in last season's As You Like It. Author, teacher, and ancient/modern Greek language expertTherese Sellers will coach Peter DeLaurier on the Greek dialect.

About Lantern Theater Company

Founded in 1994, Lantern Theater Company has launched its twenty-third season with a record number of subscribers, its largest-ever operating budget at $1.3M, and a growing community of theater artists engaged in its productions and audience enrichment events. Last season, 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 88 nominations and 19 awards, including the 2009 Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service Award for its innovative education program, Illumination. The Lantern's 2016/17 season continues with 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). More information is online at www.lanterntheater.org.

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