FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 3, 2009

Lantern Theater Company was recognized today with five nominations for the 2009 Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre. Our 2008/09 season production of The Hothouse received four nominations:

• Outstanding Overall Production of a Play
• Outstanding Direction of a Play (Kathryn MacMillan)
• Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play (Paul L. Nolan as Roote)
• Outstanding Sound Design (Christopher Colucci)

This marks the Lantern's seventh nomination for Outstanding Overall Production of Play in the past six years, more than any other theatre company in the Philadelphia region.

For the fourth consecutive year, Lantern Theater Company was also honored with a nomination for the Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service Award for Illumination, our education program that reaches underserved and economically-disadvantaged children throughout Greater Philadelphia.

Since the inception of Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre in 1995, the Lantern has received 12 awards and 59 nominations. Recent Barrymore wins include Outstanding Direction of a Play (Dan Kern for Skylight) and Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play (Geneviève Perrier in Skylight).

About The Barrymore Awards
The Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre are the Greater Philadelphia region's comprehensive theatre awards program, produced annually by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. This year's award winners will be announced at the Annual Barrymore Awards Ceremony on Monday, October 5, 2009. For more information, visit www.theatrealliance.org.

About the Lantern
Founded in 1994 by Charles McMahon and Michael Brophy, Lantern Theater Company has emerged as one of the most successful professional theaters in the Philadelphia region. The Lantern is committed to an authentic and intimate exploration of the human spirit in its choice of classic, modern, and original works.

The Lantern commits itself to being a vibrant, contributing member of its community. To that end, each season the Lantern produces four mainstage productions, a variety of special events, and Illumination, the Barrymore-nominated education program designed to engage local students and adults alike in the world of theater and nurture their own artistic expression. This program reaches the Greater Philadelphia area in four vital ways: outreach in area schools, matinee performances for students, training teaching artists for after school programs, and our audience enrichment series of lectures, discussions, and symposia.

Philadelphia Weekly named the Lantern "Best Theater Company" in 2008, describing the Theater's selection of plays as "impressively diverse in genre and style."

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.

About the 2009/10 Season
Lantern Theater Company's upcoming season features Happy Days by Samuel Beckett (September 24 - October 18, 2009), the Samuel Beckett Festival (October 9 - 11, 2009), Scapin by Bill Irwin and Mark O'Donnell, adapted from Jean Baptiste Moliére (December 3, 2009 - January 3, 2010), The Breath of Life by David Hare (February 4 - 28, 2010), Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare (April 1 - May 2, 2010), and the return engagement of Anthony Lawton's adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters (May 19 - 30, 2010).

Tickets and subscriptions are now on sale. For more information, please contact the Lantern Theater Company Box Office at 215.829.0395 or visit www.lanterntheater.org.