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![]() Illumination Education Program 2023/24 Student Matinee Performances
Welcome! We look forward to welcoming you and your students to our 2023/24 season. Student audiences bring a unique energy and curiosity to live performances, and we know that attending great performances can powerfully shape students' relationship to curricular material and dramatic literature. Your reservation includes discounted tickets, lesson plans, study guides, and post-show talkbacks with the cast. For booking and other information, please contact Talia Speak, Education & Artistic Fellow, at tspeak@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x106. ![]()
TARTUFFE: About the Play
Prim and devout Orgon invites Tartuffe, a charlatan par excellence, into his bourgeois household, laying the scene for equal parts domestic disruption and social outrage. Banned for decades by civil and religious authorities who found the play too close for comfort, this masterpiece from perhaps the most beloved comic playwright of all time is a searing and hilarious study in how we collaborate in our own deception. Directed by Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon. Best Enjoyed By 8th Grade and up Relevant Class Subjects Classics, Drama, English Language Arts, French Language and Culture, Theater Arts Running Time Approximately 2 hours and 30 mins, including a brief intermission Weekday Morning Matinee – at 10AM Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Performance Venue St. Stephen's Theater, 923 Ludlow Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 How to Book Tickets for Tartuffe
To inquire about group tickets, please submit our online inquiry form. Questions? Please contact Talia Speak, Education & Artistic Fellow, at tspeak@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x106.
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CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY: About the Play
Just arrived in Brooklyn from the South, the Crump family is seeking their place in the Philadelphia-based Father Divine movement – but their two brilliant daughters on the cusp of adulthood are chafing at their father's religious strictures. Their big dreams for the future are encouraged by their lively, fearless, free-thinking, communist Aunt Lily. This dramatic gem from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage gently reveals the funny and touching struggles of a family trying to make a fresh start in a strange world full of temptations and surprises. Directed by Lantern Guest Artist Bianca LaVerne Jones. Best Enjoyed By 8th Grade and up Relevant Class Subjects African American History, Drama, English Language Arts, Theater Arts Expected Running Time Approximately 2 hours and 10 mins, including a brief intermission Weekday Morning Matinees – at 10AM Tuesday, November 21, 2023 Tuesday, November 28, 2023 Tuesday, December 5, 2023 Wednesday, December 6, 2023 SOLD OUT! Friday, December 8, 2023
Performance Venue St. Stephen's Theater, 923 Ludlow Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 How to Book Tickets for Crumbs from the Table of Joy
To inquire about group tickets, please submit our online inquiry form. Questions? Please contact Talia Speak, Education & Artistic Fellow, at tspeak@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x106.
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CHARLES DICKENS' A CHRISTMAS CAROL: About the Play
In this wonderfully clear and direct telling of Charles Dickens' beloved novella, acclaimed playwright and actor Anthony Lawton brings the story vividly to life as only live theater can. Come rediscover Dickens' timeless story of a miser's miraculous redemption from a life of bitterness, greed, and isolation. Back by popular demand for its sixth year, this heartwarming adaptation has captured the hearts of theater critics and audiences alike, inspiring a new Philadelphia holiday tradition. Best Enjoyed By 6th Grade and up Relevant Class Subjects Classics, Drama, English Language Arts, Theater Arts Running Time 95 minutes (one act, no intermission) Weekday Morning Matinees – at 10AM Tuesday, December 5, 2023 Wednesday, December 6, 2023 Thursday, December 7, 2023 Friday, December 8, 2023 Tuesday, December 12, 2023 Wednesday, December 13, 2023 Thursday, December 14, 2023 Friday, December 15, 2023 SOLD OUT!
Performance Venue The Proscenium Theatre at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102 WATCH THE TRAILER
How to Book Tickets for A Christmas Carol
To inquire about group tickets, please submit our online inquiry form. Questions? Please contact Talia Speak, Education & Artistic Fellow, at tspeak@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x106.
![]() ![]() Designed specifically for middle and high school audiences and featuring a professional company of Philadelphia actors, this production will bring the printed page to life, focusing on the clarity of action and language as well as the emotional power of the story. Beloved all over the world for the tragic romance of its star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet is also the story of an enduring feud between the Capulet and Montague families – a conflict grown so deadly that it throws an entire city into turmoil. When Juliet and her Romeo rise above the old grudges, their love may heal the deep divisions in Verona... or bring the whole city crashing down. Directed by Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon. Best Enjoyed By 7th Grade and up Relevant Class Subjects Classics, Drama, English Language Arts, Theater Arts Content Advisory The play contains bawdy language and depictions of street violence and suicide. Our production will include the use of stage blood. Running Time 2 hours and 10 minutes, including one intermission Weekday Morning Matinees – at 10AM Monday, April 15 - Friday, April 19, 2024 Monday, April 22 - Friday, April 26, 2024 Monday, April 29 - Friday, May 3, 2024
Performance Venue The Theater at the Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19106 WATCH THE TRAILER
Our production of ROMEO AND JULIET is part of Shakespeare in American Communities, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. Lantern Theater Company is one of 40 professional theater companies across the nation selected to perform a Shakespeare play with a professional team of actors for middle and high schools and conduct related educational activities for students. This trailer of the Lantern's ROMEO AND JULIET was filmed in April 2018 in Philadelphia.
How to Book Tickets for Romeo and Juliet
To inquire about group tickets, please submit our online inquiry form. Questions? Please contact Talia Speak, Education & Artistic Fellow, at tspeak@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x106.
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THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: About the Play
Come see how the story of a bereaved merchant searching for his lost son in a hostile city turns into an unrivaled comedy of mistaken identities, twins separated at birth, and love lost and won. When all of Ephesus is thrown into chaos, only the genius of Shakespeare can put it right again. Directed by Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon. Best Enjoyed By 7th Grade and up Relevant Class Subjects Classics, Drama, English Language Arts, Theater Arts Expected Running Time To be announced Weekday Morning Matinees – at 10AM Tuesday, May 28, 2024 Tuesday, June 4, 2024
Performance Venue St. Stephen's Theater, 923 Ludlow Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 How to Book Tickets for The Comedy of Errors
To inquire about group tickets, please submit our online inquiry form. Questions? Please contact Talia Speak, Education & Artistic Fellow, at tspeak@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x106.
Pricing and Booking Information for Student Matinee Performances – 2023/24 Season
Pricing Student tickets for weekday morning matinees are $18 each. One free teacher/chaperone ticket is provided for every 10 student tickets purchased. Study Guides Lantern study guides enable you to bring the show into your classroom. Our guides include information about the play and the playwright, thought-provoking questions, and fun classroom activities. Lesson plans meet national and state standards in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Language Arts, and Theater Arts. Q&A with the Cast Learn about the making of each play! We hold a talkback following every student matinee performance to give students the opportunity to ask questions of the members of the cast. Venues & Accessibility Our student matinee performances are presented at multiple Center City Philadelphia venues with different levels of accessibility. Please email us with any questions or concerns. Health and Safety Policy Face masks are welcome but are not required. Academic Group Discounts for Public Performances – 2023/24 Season
Join us for any regularly-scheduled mainstage performance and pay just $20 per ticket. This group discount is available for all middle school, high school, and university groups of 10 or more students. To inquire about group tickets, please submit an online inquiry. Questions? Please contact Talia Speak, Education & Artistic Fellow, at tspeak@lanterntheater.org or 215.829.9002 x106.
![]() Pictured: Julia Hopkins and Tyler S. Elliot in Romeo and Juliet (2022). Photo: Mark Garvin.
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Header Photo: Lawrence Stallings in the world premiere of Me and the Devil (2021); Anthony Lawton and Dave Johnson in Travesties (2022); Melissa Rakiro and Joanna Liao in Twelfth Night (2023); and Paul L. Nolan, Sally Mercer, and Charles McMahon in Copenhagen (2018). Photos by Mark Garvin.
Lantern Theater Company acknowledges that it is situated on Lenapehoking, the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Unami Lenape, and we pay respect to them as this region's original storytellers. ©2023 Lantern Theater Company Privacy Policy |