Lantern Theater Company Presents South African Sizwe Bansi is Dead Through March 1, 2009

Lantern Theater Company's 15th Anniversary 2008-09 Season continues with Sizwe Bansi is Dead by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona from January 30 - March 1, 2009 at St. Stephen's Theater in Center City. From South Africa's most celebrated playwright comes a drama as powerful today as in its first performance 35 years ago. Styles, an enterprising photographer, has a small storefront in a Port Elizabeth township. When Sizwe, a migrant worker, comes in to have his picture taken, the two explore issues of image and identity under South Africa's oppressive regime. Both soaring and personal, the play's attack on the dehumanizing laws of the apartheid era resonates with surprising humor and uplifting faith in the human spirit.

Sizwe Bansi is Dead begins previews on Friday, January 30, 2009 with an opening on Wednesday, February 4 at 7pm. The closing performance is scheduled for Sunday, March 1, 2009. Tickets are $20-$35, with discounts for students, seniors, and groups of 10 or more. All performances are held at St. Stephen's Theater, 10th and Ludlow Streets, Philadelphia, PA. Tickets and subscriptions can be purchased on-line at www.lanterntheater.org or by calling the box office at 215-829-0395.

Lantern Theater Company is proud to present Sizwe Bansi is Dead for the play's 35th Anniversary, which was originally written in South Africa by renowned Afrikaaner playwright Athol Fugard along with the two original performers, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. Kani and Ntshona were jointly awarded the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1974, then returned to South Africa to perform the piece as a major act of defiance which caused them to be placed in solitary confinement for fifteen days. The Lantern's upcoming production will be the first presentation of Sizwe Bansi is Dead since the original actors elected to retire the piece, following a recent limited run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in spring 2008.

Fugard's plays have maintained relevance and popularity in Philadelphia's vibrant theater scene, including a Barrymore-nominated production of "Master Harold"...and the boys at the Lantern in 2006, called a "profoundly moving theater experience" by Philadelphia Weekly. Surrounding the production, the Lantern will host its In Conversation Audience Enrichment series, giving audience members the chance to learn more about the themes surrounding the play, the history of its creation, and the relationship to today's political climate in South Africa.

Peter DeLaurier, frequent Lantern collaborator as an actor (Skylight, QED, Underneath the Lintel) and member of People's Light and Theater Company, will make his Lantern directorial debut with Sizwe Bansi is Dead. The two-person cast includes Forrest McClendon (Lantern's Death and the King's Horseman) and Lawrence Stallings (Broadway's Passing Strange and Lantern's Death and the King's Horseman). The Lantern is proud to welcome back a team of Philadelphia-based designers which includes set designer Meghan Jones, costume designer Millie Hiibel, lighting designers Janet Embree and David O'Connor and sound designers Christopher Colucci and Mark Valenzuela, who will create the feeling of a 1970's South African township throughout St. Stephen's Theater, from the lobby to the stage.

About The 2008-2009 Season
After Sizwe Bansi is Dead, Lantern Theater Company's 15th Anniversary season concludes with Hamlet by William Shakespeare (April 3 - May 10, 2009). Earlier in the season, the Lantern presented the Philadelphia Premiere of Harold Pinter's The Hothouse, an all-new adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector by Armina LaManna and David O'Connor, and a limited engagement of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, adapted and performed by Anthony Lawton.

A La Carte subscriptions are available for the 2008-09 season through January 30 for $128 for adults and $120 for students and seniors. Single tickets for the 2008-09 season are $20-$35, with student, senior and group rates available. The Lantern provides student rush discounts through "$15 at :15," which provides up to 15 tickets to students with valid ID 15 minutes before the performance for just $15. For tickets and information, please contact the Lantern Theater Company box office at (215) 829-0395 or visit us online at www.lanterntheater.org.

About the Lantern
Founded in 1994 by Charles McMahon and Michael Brophy, Lantern Theater Company has emerged as one of the most successful professional theaters in the Philadelphia region. Lantern Theater Company is committed to an authentic and intimate exploration of the human spirit in its choice of classic, modern and original works.

The Lantern commits itself to being a vibrant, contributing member of its community. To that end, each season the Lantern produces four main stage productions, a variety of special events, and Illumination, the Barrymore nominated education program designed to engage local students and adults alike in the world of theater and nurture their own artistic expression. This program reaches the Greater Philadelphia area in four vital ways: outreach in area schools, matinee performances for students, training teaching artists for after school programs, and our audience enrichment series of lectures, discussions, and symposia for each production of our season.

Lantern Theater Company has been in residence at St. Stephen's Theater at 10th & Ludlow Streets in Center City Philadelphia since 1996, managing the performance space and developing it into an affordable multi-purpose performing arts venue. Since the inception of Philadelphia's Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre in 1995, the Lantern has received 12 awards and 54 nominations, including nominations from 2006 to 2008 for the Excellence in Theatre Education and Community Service Award. Philadelphia Weekly named the Lantern Best Theatre Company for the 2007-08 Season, calling the company's selection of plays "impressively diverse in genre and style". The 2008-09 season at Lantern Theater Company marks the company's 15th year of creating high-quality professional theater in Philadelphia.