PHILADELPHIA: Lantern Theater Company has announced its 2016–17 season, which will feature a mix of new plays and classics. The lineup includes Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s An Iliad, Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Informed Consent, and a Coriolanus featuring Tina Packer.
The season will open with Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, directed by Kathryn MacMillan and starring local mainstay Mary Martello in the title role (Sept. 8–Oct. 16).
Next will be An Iliad, Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s one-person retelling of Homer’s epic (Nov. 10–Dec. 11). M. Craig Getting will direct actor Peter DeLaurier as the Poet, with Liz Filios providing live music.
Following will be Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Informed Consent, directed by MacMillian (Jan. 12–Feb. 12, 2017). It follows a geneticist who conducts research on a Native American tribe in hopes of finding a cure for a genetic ailment plaguing the tribe and her family.
Lantern artistic director Charles McMahon then will direct acclaimed actress Tina Packer in Coriolanus (March 9–April 16, 2017). Packer will play the title character’s mother, Volumnia.
Closing the season will be The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord by Scott Carter (June 1–July 2, 2017). The comedy imagines a meeting between the three historical figures, in a production directed by local artist James Ijames.
