Lantern Theater Company Extends EMMA Through 11/3

Lantern Theater Company's Philadelphia premiere production of Jane Austen's Emma will be extended an additional week through Sunday, November 3, 2013 to meet audience demand. Emma is one of the first Barrymore Recommended productions of the 2013/14 season underTheatre Philadelphia's relaunchEd Barrymore Awards program. In conjunction with Emma, the Lantern is hosting Regency & Revelry: The Jane Austen Festival, which will close on Sunday, October 20 with Emma & Adapting Austen, a free discussion and audience Q&A led by Professor Janine Utell of Widener University.

The following performances have been added:
Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 31 at 7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 1 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m.

Phindie's Debra Miller raved: "the production is ambitious, full and rich, and every second is thoroughly engaging. Director Kathryn MacMillan captures all the detailed observations, upper-class spectacle, and lively characters of the novel with satiric wit and 19th-century British decorum." Also in Phindie,Michael Fisher declared Emma "a blast of an evening in Austenland." WHYY's Howard Shapiro praised Lauren Sowa's performance, saying she "makes an excellent Emma, transmitting all the coyness, naiveté and judgmental qualities the character embodies. She's just a girl who can't stay out of other people's business although she hasn't really got her own in order - a paradox you can see in Sowa's body language, but mostly in her eyes."

Emma Woodhouse is Jane Austen's most maddening, endearing heroine. Handsome, clever and rich, young Emma is also a bit too accustomed to having her own way, although only her friend Mr. Knightley seems to notice. Nearly 200 years after its publication, Emma continues to delight, both as a coming-of-age tale and as a lively satire of Austen's elegant and quirky characters. This sparkling stage adaptation of the beloved classic novel features a spectacle of Regency dance, revelry, and romance that will welcome new audiences into Austen's witty, captivating world while reminding longtime fans why they fell in love with Emma in the first place.

"Every romantic novel today has been influenced, directly and indirectly, by Jane Austen's novels," says Emma director and Lantern associate artistic director Kathryn MacMillan, who fell in love with Emma - and Jane Austen - as a teenager. "Her characters stand the test of time, and her stories are adapted so often and so well because they are truthful and funny. Emma is a case study in folly and eccentricity. It's fun to watch what have become familiar tropes, like the 'too clever for her own good' young girl, yet the interpersonal relationships are still surprising and Austen's ability to create an ironic detachment keeps it modern."

The Lantern will further explore these themes on Sunday, October 20 at 5:00 p.m. with a FREE discussion and Q&A entitled Emma & Adapting Austen, presented as the final event of its Regency & Revelry: The Jane Austen Festival. As she began writing Emma, Jane Austen wrote, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." For almost 200 years, readers and audiences have been proving Austen wrong as Emma has become one of British literature's most beloved and enduring characters. Professor Janine Utell will lead a conversation about the differences between the page and the stage, how Austen's style and insight into her characters come to life in performance, and whether the book really is always better than the movie. Utell is Associate Professor and Chair of English at Widener University, where she teaches composition and 19th and 20th century British literature. She also facilitates book groups for adults at the Swarthmore Public Library. She holds a B.A. (summa cum laude) in English and French from Barnard College and a Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Tickets for Emma are $30 - $38 and are available online at lanterntheater.org or by calling the Lantern Box Office at (215) 829-0395. $10 student rush tickets are available 10 minutes before curtain with valid ID; cash only. Additional discounts are available for seniors, groups of 10 or more and U.S. military personnel. Lantern Theater Company is located at St. Stephen's Theater, 10th & Ludlow Streets in Center City Philadelphia.

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