We hope you enjoyed the Lantern's 2025/26 season, from the witty dialogue of The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard to the heartbreak of Macbeth and the moving mix of tragedy and hope in Blues for an Alabama Sky. This past Sunday, our 32nd season came to a bittersweet close as Lantern favorites Frank X (Benjamin Franklin) and Dave Johnson (William Franklin) took their final bows in Franklinland, Lloyd Suh's endearing comedy of Revolutionary consequences, here in the city where it happened.

During the just-ended school year, we served over 3,500 local students and teachers with classroom residencies, student matinee performances, and teacher training workshops. We provided 47 classroom residencies on curricular works of literature to 1,197 local middle school and high school students and hosted 2,379 students and teachers at 19 student matinee performances. Half of these tickets were free to school groups.

You value our work on stage: this season, our subscription income has increased 10% and single ticket sales are up more than 20%. Unfortunately, attendance remains below the pre-Covid peak of the 2018/19 season, and structural costs in the performing arts rise every year. Even with impressive ticket sales gains, we are at risk to incur a budget gap that can only be closed with your help.

We need your support today. We have an ambitious plan that will enable us to return to the levels of institutional health and artistic growth that the Lantern enjoyed pre-Covid. This plan will require substantial investment over the next year. If you enjoy Lantern plays and feel that live theater brings meaning and artistic excellence into your life, please let us know that you feel strongly about having the Lantern as a key player in the Philadelphia performing arts world.

We rely on contributions for 70% of the Lantern's income. With foundation and government grants to the arts declining – nationally and locally – we must ask our individual patrons to raise your engagement and generosity.

YOU are the key to the Lantern's success – when you are in the audience and when you support the work on stage. We ask you now to take advantage of this exciting Challenge Match and give generously to support your theater company.

With deepest appreciation,

Questions? Please contact our Development Team at development@lanterntheater.org. Thank you for supporting the Lantern!