Lantern Theater Company Announces ARCADIA Special Events

Lantern Theater Company presents In Arcadia: Celebrating Tom Stoppard's Masterpiece, a four-day festival that celebrates of the enduring brilliance of Arcadia, a play that weaves together romance, science, mathematics, sex, and so much more into a deeply personal, funny exploration of human experience. In Arcadia: Celebrating Tom Stoppard's Masterpiece will include a keynote discussion with guest panelists Michael Gamer, Paul Halpern, Emily Hyde and Toby Zinman, plus a high tea with Dr. Janine Utell, special performances of some of Stoppard's rarely-performed short works, and other experiential events. In Arcadia runs October 23 - 26 and is presented in conjunction with Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, on stage at the Lantern through November 9, 2014. [Full festival schedule is included below.]

"With two plays currently running in New York, an upcoming premiere in the West End, and performances of his masterpiece Arcadia popping up all over the country - including here in Philadelphia at the Lantern - Tom Stoppard is having quite a moment," says Lantern Associate Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillan, who directed the Lantern's production of Arcadia and curated the In Arcadia Festival. "What is it about Stoppard that has secured him a place in the theatrical canon, with a varied career dating back to his absurdist pieces of the 1960s? And why do his plays remain so relevant, urgent and entertaining decades after their premieres? How does he weave together varied and complex themes - Romantic literature, landscape architecture, entropy, chaos - with metaphorical power and ease? The Lantern seeks to engage our audiencewith these questions during this Festival."

In Arcadia: Celebrating Tom Stoppard's Masterpiece runs October 23 - 26, 2014. Most events are free. Ticketed events range from $15 - $39 and are available online at lanterntheater.org or by calling the Lantern Box Office at (215) 829-0395. Discounts for most events are available for subscribers, full-time students, seniors, and groups of 10 or more.

In Arcadia: Celebrating Tom Stoppard's Masterpiece
October 23 - 26, 2014

This four-day festival will celebrate the enduring brilliance of Arcadia with panel discussions on the play's rich and varied themes, a high tea, talkbacks, opportunities to mingle with fellow patrons, and special performances of some of Stoppard's rarely-performed short works.

CURTAIN RAISER
Arcadia in Objects: An Introduction to the Play
Thursday, October 23 at 6:00 p.m.
Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 26 at 1:00 p.m.
In the Newly-Renovated Lab | 25 minutes | FREE

What do a steam pump, a bowl of rice pudding, a laptop, and a tortoise have in common? Find out during Arcadia in Objects, an informative pre-show lecture that through the play's props offers a quick look at the concepts and themes Stoppard explores: chaos theory, the second law of thermodynamics, scholarly investigation, modern mathematics, music, and more.

HIGH TEA & LECTURE
Arcadia in the Garden: A Tour of the Picturesque, the Romantic, and the Tree of Knowledge
Saturday, October 25 at 11:30 a.m
In the Newly-Renovated Lab | 2 hours | $39 ($35 for subscribers)

Join us for high tea with sandwiches, scones with cream & jam, and mini desserts from Main Line teahouse A Taste of Britain. Socialize with fellow patrons and enjoy a lively talk led by Widener professor Dr. Janine Utell, who will take us through the English garden styles that form the backdrop to Arcadia, exploring how Stoppard uses changing landscapes as a motif to explore his themes of progress, knowledge, and the mythical Arcadia of poets and painters.

Janine Utell, PhD, is Associate Professor and Chair of English at Widener University. She teaches courses in British literature: Victorian (1832-1901), Modernist (1910-1945), and contemporary and postcolonial (1945-present). She also conducts a senior seminar for English majors on James Joyce's Ulysses. Her research interests include the representation of private life, intimacy, and love in 20th century British literature. She is the author of James Joyce and the Revolt of Love: Marriage, Adultery, Desire (Palgrave, 2010) as well as a number of articles on 20th century literature and film; she also blogs on issues in higher education for Inside Higher Ed and The Guardian. In addition to her research and teaching, she is an Associate Editor for the journal College Literature and leads a series of adult reading groups at the Swarthmore Public Library.

KEYNOTE PANEL
At the Heart of Tom Stoppard: Why Arcadia Endures
Saturday, October 25 at 2:00 p.m.
On the Lantern Mainstage | 2 hours | $15 ($12 for subscribers)

Before the artistic triumph of 1993's Arcadia, critics sometimes accused Tom Stoppard of being all 'head' and no 'heart.' This panel discussion will get to the heart of Arcadia to celebrate its 20 enduring years. First, we'll take a look at the historical period of the play (1809-1812) across many disciplines: Lord Byron and the Romantic imagination in poetry, mathematics, dance, and gardening to reveal a world in the midst of sweeping, thrilling change. Then we'll examine the major themes of Arcadia to reveal how skillfully Stoppard draws together wide-ranging concepts, contrasting Enlightenment reasoning with Romantic feeling, tying together science and sex, examining the nature of genius and time, and finally, comparing the laws of thermodynamics and attraction. This Keynote Panel will feature the following guest scholars:

Michael Gamer is Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Romanticism and the Gothic: Genre, Reception, and Canon Formation (Cambridge, 2000). He is currently at work on two books: Recollections in Tranquility: The Romantic Art of Self-Canonization, 1765-1832 and A History of British Theatre: Staged Conflicts, under contract with Blackwell Publishing. He is editor of Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (Penguin, 2002) and Charlotte Smith's Manon L'Escaut and the Romance of Real Life (Pickering and Chatto, 2005). He works on collaboration and is fond of collaborative work: with Jeffrey Cox he edited The Broadview Anthology of Romantic Drama (Broadview, 2003); with Dahlia Porter, Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads 1798 and 1800 (Broadview, 2008). He has also published essays in MLQ, PMLA, Novel, ELH, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Studies in Romanticism, and other journals on poetic collections, the novel, pornography, print culture, authorship, and dramas of spectacle. Recently awarded the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association 2010 prize for best article for Mary Robinson and the Dramatic Art of the Comeback, he also is recipient of the Ira Abrams, Lindback, College of General Studies, David Delaura, and Alan Filreis awards for distinguished teaching.

Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. A prolific author, he has written more than a dozen science books and numerous articles. His interests range from space, time, and higher dimensions to cultural aspects of science. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, and an Athenaeum Literary Award, he has appeared on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the PBS series Future Quest, and The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special. Halpern's books include Time Journeys, Cosmic Wormholes, The Cyclical Serpent, Faraway Worlds, The Great Beyond, Brave New Universe, What's Science Ever Done for Us?, Collider, What's the Matter with Pluto?, Edge of the Universe and the upcoming Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics, which is now available for pre-order. More info: www.phalpern.com

Emily Hyde is a Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania where she teaches courses in modernism and science, modernisms and modernities, and photographic illustration. She has taught in the English Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at Princeton University, and she spent four years as a teaching fellow for the Princeton University Preparatory Program. She graduated from Yale University and received her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2013. She is currently at work on a project titled A Way of Seeing: Modernism, Illustration, and Postcolonial Literature, which examines the global forms of mid-twentieth century literature through the vexed status of the visual in late modernist and early postcolonial texts. Teaching and research interests include modern and contemporary British and Anglophone literature, modernisms and modernities, postcolonial literature and theory, photography and literature, word and image studies, narrative and novel theory, and the documentary genre.

Toby Zinman is Professor of English at the University of the Arts, where she was awarded the prize for Distinguished Teaching. She has authored multiple books and lectures internationally on contemporary American drama. She was a Fulbright professor of theater at Tel Aviv University and has received five grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Zinman is also theater critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia reviewer for Variety, and a frequent contributor to American Theatre magazine, which recently named her one of the "twelve most influential critics in the United States." Her third career as an adventure travel writer has taken her all over the world.

LANTERN PUB
Thursday, October 23 through Saturday, October 25, immediately following the performance
In the Lantern Lobby | FREE

With its rich ideas and mystery, Arcadia is certain to spark discussion. Immediately following the performance, cast members will join patrons for informal conversations about the play. The Lantern will provide complimentary wine and beer andsome questions to consider; patrons will provide their impressions and insights.

PERFORMANCE
Stoppard Shorts: The Dissolution of Dominic Boot, Albert's Bridge, and A Separate Peace
Sunday, October 26 at 7:00 p.m.
On the Lantern Mainstage | 2 hours | $20 ($15 for subscribers)

In addition to his enduring full-length works, Tom Stoppard is the author of several theatrically inventive one-acts and radio plays that explore his common themes of time, memory, and the quest for knowledge. This evening will be a triple bill of staged readings of Stoppard's short works, featuring a team of Philadelphia actors including Daniel Fredrick (currently starring as Valentine Coverly in Arcadia), Rachel Brodeur, Chris Davis, Ben Harter Murphy, Katherine Perry, Brendan Norton, and Mary Beth Shrader.

On the Lantern Mainstage | 2 hours | $20 ($15 for subscribers, seniors, and students)

The Dissolution of Dominic Boot (radio play, 1964): Stoppard's first radio play is a comedy with an absurdist bent in which a man tries to pay for his cab fare with a spiraling lack of success. Directed by Laurel Hostak, a freelance writer, performer, and stage manager who served as Assistant Director for Arcadia.

A Separate Peace (teleplay, 1966): Stoppard's first teleplay is a sly, gentle dig at society's conventions and preconceptions. The mysterious John Brown arrives at a private nursing home with a briefcase full of money and demands a room. He can pay for it. He has nothing wrong with him, but so what? Directed by Laurel Hostak.

Albert's Bridge (radio play, 1967): Albert has a degree in philosophy and - with a job as bridge painter - a new perspective on life up high. "A man could give his life to its maintenance," he says about his beloved bridge, and the pressure of keeping his sanctuary beautiful may force Albert to do just that. Directed by Lauren Tuvell, a freelance director and recent University of the Arts grad who will serve as Assistant Director on the Lantern's upcoming production of QED.