A conversation with the sparring partners at the center of THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT — In The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell — onstage at Lantern Theater Company February 2 through March 5, 2023 — an essayist and a fact checker go head-to-head over the nature of truth in art. Lantern dramaturg Meghan Winch sat down with the…

For magazine editor Emily Penrose, the stakes of THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT could be a publication’s life or death — “The whole industry is falling down around me,” laments Emily Penrose, the beleaguered magazine editor at the center of the debate in Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell’s The Lifespan of a Fact, onstage at Lantern Theater Company February 2 through March 5, 2023. While essayist John D’Agata and…

How much do you know about writers who have blurred fact and fiction? Take our quiz and find out! — The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell — onstage at Lantern Theater Company February 2 through March 5, 2023 — is a semi-true story inspired by the actual debate between John D’Agata, an essayist, and Jim Fingal, the fact checker assigned to verify his…

From the dawn of recorded history, we have debated about what truths to tell, and how — “I want you preoccupied with art in this book, not with facts for the sake of facts.” Essayist John D’Agata draws that line in the sand between facts and art in the preface to The Next American Essay (A New History of the Essay), the first book in his three-volume…

Exploring the facts-first side of the play’s central debate — Here are the facts: In The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell — onstage at Lantern Theater Company February 2 through March 5, 2023 — an essayist and a fact checker do battle over truth and authenticity, art and information, transcendence and honesty. They…

The director of THE ROYALE talks about the play and the history that inspired it — Marco Ramirez’s The Royale — onstage at Lantern Theater Company now through December 11, 2022 — is a play that resonates with the percussive rhythms of the boxing ring and the syncopation of jazz. To bring it to vibrant life, the Lantern turned to Zuhairah McGill, an award-winning director, actor…

THE ROYALE is set in a time when hard-won progress was being violently undone — Marco Ramirez’s The Royale — onstage at Lantern Theater Company now through December 11, 2022 — is set in the earliest years of the 1900s. While a new century was beginning, the reverberations of the previous one were rumbling through the U.S. While Jack Johnson was boxing his way to…

THE ROYALE actor on the joys, challenges, and opportunities of this unique and moving production — “To be a good actor, I believe it’s the most sacrificial art form. You have to give all of your mind, body, soul, and spirit,” says Phillip Brown, star of Marco Ramirez’s The Royale — onstage at Lantern Theater Company now through December 11, 2022. And according to Brown, the…

The award-winning writer who brought Jay Jackson’s story to life in THE ROYALE — In an interview with Stay Thirsty Magazine, playwright Marco Ramirez said, “For me, the magic of theater is in the imagined space between audience and performance. I’m not impressed when an actor sits on a fancy throne on a stage. I’m impressed when an actor sits on a stool and…