PHILADELPHIA– Lantern Theater Company presents William Shakespeare’s Henry V under the direction of the Lantern’s Artistic Director, Charles McMahon, as part of its record-breaking 19th season. Performances will run March 14 through April 14, exactly 600 years after Henry’s ascension to the British throne in 1413, and will include the popular Scholars: In Conversation series as a companion to the performances. This year’s series, The Spark of War: Politics, Leadership & the Psyche of a Nation, will use the powerful themes of Shakespeare’s play as a catalyst to explore modern issues of leadership, politics, and how mythmaking shapes national identity.
With Henry V, “the city’s top presenter of Shakespeare’s work” (TheaterMania.com) brings to the stage an epic journey through royal courts and battlefields, conjuring a vast world through the suggestive power of the Bard’s incomparable language. Following a bloody civil war, charismatic young Henry, England’s new king, sets out to repair his fractured nation with a common purpose: war with France. But unprepared and outnumbered, Henry’s small army of bumbling country rubes and petty thieves seem to be no match for the slick French war machine. While Henry sets out to secure his crown and reputation, he finds humility, true leadership, and the power to inspire a nation. From rousing speeches to the dark eve of Agincourt, Henry V is both adventurous and introspective, a tale of raw power punctuated by surprising moments of comedy.
“Shakespeare does a lot of meditation on authority,” says director Charles McMahon, a Shakespeare aficionado who has directed all but one of the Lantern’s Shakespeare productions over the past 16 years, including last season’s Romeo & Juliet. “Henry is trying to find a way to be a just king and a true authority, even though he reached that position through a dubious agency. This theme of trying to achieve personal and national redemption manifests itself via Henry’s relationship with the people — as well as his rights over them — which was a revolutionary thought for Shakespeare’s time.”
Ben Dibble will star as King Henry, a part that he has described as “by far the most challenging title role I have taken on since Bat Boy (at 1812 Productions in 2003). I have never carried this much dialogue in a play, and I am very excited to take the massive journey from new king to conquistador.”
Henry V runs March 14 – April 14, 2013 (press opening: March 20, 7 p.m.). Tickets are $20 – $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 current/former members of the U.S. military. Lantern Theater Company is located at St. Stephen’s Theater, 10th & Ludlow Streets in Center City Philadelphia.
ABOUT THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
Ben Dibble stars in the titular role as Henry V. An award-winning actor, singer, and educator, Dibble has appeared in over 50 theatrical productions on the region’s stages, including his performance as Elyot Chase in last season’s Private Lives at the Lantern.
Krista Apple makes her Lantern debut as the Chorus, a critical role that serves as the voice of Shakespeare himself within the play. In featuring a woman as the Chorus in a play otherwise filled with men, the production will explore the feminine at war. “The men of the play are at war and have a rather singular purpose,” says director Charles McMahon. “The Chorus, however, takes a more worldly perspective, takes a step back to see the whole battlefield, the whole world of the play – that’s the voice of the playwright. It’s also a rather feminine perspective to take.”
The cast is rounded out by David Bardeen (New Jerusalem) as Canterbury/Ensemble, Jake Blouch (The Liar, New Jerusalem, Romeo & Juliet) as Dauphin/Pistol/Ensemble, Mark Cairns (A Midsummer Night’s Dream and himself a former Army Officer and Gulf War vet) as Exeter/Williams/Ensemble, K.O. DelMarcelle (Romeo & Juliet, Private Lives) as Katherine/Ensemble, Matt Tallman (The Liar) as Bedford/Nym/Orleans/Ensemble. Native Londoner Mal Whyte will star as Fluellen/Ensemble, making both his Lantern and American Shakespeare debut.
The Lantern’s Production Manager and Scenic Designer Meghan Jones (The Liar, Private Lives) will create Henry V’s epic world of great battles and location shifts, with lighting and sound design by Drew Billiau (Romeo & Juliet) and Michael Kiley (Lantern debut), respectively. Costumes by Mary Folino will be genuine to the time period, and award-winning fight director J. Alex Cordaro (The Liar, Romeo & Juliet, Private Lives) will create the choreography – here making use of the longbow that the English found so effective against the French during the Hundred Years’ War, most famously at the Battle of Agincourt (1415), which is featured prominently in this play.
Scholars: In Conversation
The Spark of War: Politics, Leadership & the Psyche of a Nation
March 25, April 1, and April 8, 2013
Moderated by Kathryn MacMillan, Lantern Theater Company Associate Artistic Director and Professor of Theater at West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Presented in conjunction with Henry V, this moderated discussion series will introduce the powerful themes of Shakespeare’s play as a catalyst to explore modern issues of leadership, politics, and how war stories shape national identity. Each discussion will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Monday, March 25
7 p.m. | $10 general admission, $8 for seniors, students & Lantern subscribers
Panel Discussion: The Transformational Power of Leadership
Moore College of Art & Design President and arts thought leader Cecelia Fitzgibbon and Lantern Artistic Director Charles McMahon will address the nature of leadership and the relationship between great leaders and their citizens, both in Shakespeare’s history and in the modern world.
Monday, April 1
7 p.m. | $10 general admission, $8 for seniors, students & Lantern subscribers
Panel Discussion: The Psyche of a Nation
American popular historian and internationally acclaimed author Kenneth C. Davis will address the power of mythmaking and storytelling in shaping national identity, both in Shakespeare’s time and in significant historical moments since. Kenneth C. Davis is the bestselling author of Don’t Know Much About® History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned. First published in 1990, the book spent 35 consecutive weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list and gave rise to Davis’ series of Don’t Know Much About® books and audios on a wide range of subjects. In June 2011, a newly revised, expanded and updated hardcover edition of Don’t Know Much About® History (Anniversary Edition) was published by HarperCollins and has a combined in-print total of more than 1.6 million copies. Davis added to his series with a new hardcover for adults, Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents, published by Hyperion in September 2012. Davis has also written for national publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian and The Washington Post. He has appeared on radio (National Public Radio, Vermont Public Radio) and television (Today, CNN, Fox and Friends and the CBS Early Show).
Monday, April 8
7 p.m. | $10 general admission, $8 for seniors, students & Lantern subscribers
Panel Discussion: Politics and Populism
Rutgers University history professor Alastair Bellany and Local Shakespearean scholar and Villanova University professor John-Paul Spiro will to explore the power of the people’s will in shaping the political history of nations, whether the medieval England of Henry V, Elizabethan England, or in today’s United States.
Bellany’s research focuses on the political culture of early modern England, with a particular interest in political media, political violence, and the image of the Tudor and Stuart monarchy. He is the author of The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England, co-editor of Early Stuart Libels: An Edition of Poetry From Manuscript Sources, and is completing work on a pair of co-written books: The Murder of King James I: Medicine, Poison Politics and the Secret History of the English Revolution; and England’s Assassin: John Felton and the Murder of the Duke of Buckingham. Spiro holds degrees from Vassar, CUNY, and the University of Chicago, and is a published authority on the cultural impact of William Shakespeare.
2012/13 Season
Lantern Theater Company will close its 2012/13 season with the Philadelphia Premiere of Heroes by Tom Stoppard, adapted from Gérald Sibleyras’ Le Vent Des Peupliers and directed by M. Craig Getting (May 16 – June 9, 2013).
