Enchantment Theatre Company

For almost 30 years, Enchantment Theatre Company has been producing innovative quality theater for children and their families. Recognized across America for its uniqueness, the Philadelphia-based Enchantment Theatre Company presents inspiring classic tales using its special blend of magic, mask, pantomime, puppetry and original music. 2007 marks an exciting year of growth for Enchantment Theatre. The company has partnered with Healy Entertainment, an arts and entertainment production, management and consulting company in New York, to launch the national tour of its brand new musical The Velveteen Rabbit. In December, Enchantment Theatre will debut the production in its new home, Philadelphia's new Suzanne Roberts Theatre, where it is the resident children's theater company for this first season. The Velveteen Rabbit features music by Grammy and Tony-Award winning composer Don Sebesky and award-winning lyricist Gloria Nissenson. While all of Enchantment's productions incorporate captivating music, The Velveteen Rabbit is the first in the company's repertoire to showcase songs with lyrics. Founded in 1979 by Jennifer Blatchley Smith and Landis Smith, and expanded to an artistic partnership with Resident Director Leslie Reidel in 1995, Enchantment Theatre Company has toured its original productions all over the world. It has performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Closer to home, the company has performed at the Academy of Music and The Kimmel Center with The Philadelphia Orchestra and at the Annenberg Center as part of the International Children's Theater Festival. Enchantment Theatre Company has toured in the Far East six times, performing in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. In 1985, Enchantment Theatre Company premiered The Symphony and the Sorcerer, a one-of-a-kind production introducing youngsters to the allure of orchestral music. The premiere of this work with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra initiated the creation of a whole series of symphonic programs featuring theater, magic and music. The company has appeared with major orchestras nationwide, including the Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, Minnesota, Cleveland, and Seattle Symphony Orchestras and with the Boston Pops on the PBS Christmas at the Pops television special, which aired nationally for five years. In 1997, the company explored new possibilities in family theater by integrating life-size puppets, masks, shadow play, illusions, and original music. The result was the creation of Beauty and the Beast, a charming, inventive production, which was presented more than 260 times, in more than 120 venues across the United States. While Beauty and the Beast was touring, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra commissioned Enchantment Theatre to develop a choreographed pantomime piece set to a suite from Prokofiev's ballet, Cinderella. The production blended the company's signature elements - puppetry, masked actors and magic, with orchestral music. Over the years, Enchantment has performed this version of Cinderella with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Des Moines, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Houston Symphony Orchestras. Based on the success of Cinderella, Enchantment Theatre Company expanded the work into a fully-staged touring production, integrating original music and high-tech lighting and scenic effects. Cinderella has toured nationally and played to Philadelphia audiences during long-running engagements. In 2001, Enchantment Theatre Company was re-established as a non-profit, resident theater company dedicated to Philadelphia families. Each year the company has presented a lavish holiday production on a downtown stage, including such favorites as The Snow Queen, Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Beauty and the Beast. In 2003 the company premiered its original theatrical adaptation of Stravinsky's The Firebird in collaboration with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Presented on the main stage at The Kimmel Center, before the full orchestra, The Firebird captured the imagination of more than 15,000 students, as part of the Orchestra's Young People's Concert series. The following year, the same production was presented by The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Seattle Symphony. In addition to its acclaimed stage productions, Enchantment Theatre is committed to arts education, through its program, The Magic of Masks. Last year, this program, now five years old, reached 6,000 students from 60 Philadelphia schools by offering a full schedule of school day performances, encouraging class field trips through reduced ticket prices, and offering in-school artist-in-residency programs. Continuing its mission of education and outreach, in 2007 the company proudly launched its first season of Camp Enchantment, which yielded an entirely original, youth-driven production, The Boy Who Made Peace. In August, 2007, Enchantment Theatre joined The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in New York to present a family concert featuring actors, dancers, magicians and puppets for their special adaptation of The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas. Landis Smith appeared at the concert as the Great Alexi, a Ukrainian magician, to provide a light-hearted and imaginative way of introducing the orchestra to the young audience and their families. Philadelphia audiences have seen the Great Alexi in the spring 2005 and in May 2006, when Enchantment performed The Sorcerer's Apprentice at the Iron Gate Theatre. The excitement continues during the 2007-2008 season with the national tour of The Velveteen Rabbit, hitting more than 60 cities across the United States, including at Philadelphia's new Suzanne Roberts Theatre during the holiday season. In the works for 2008 is Scheherazade, a rare adaptation of the more commonly known 1001 Arabian Nights. The production promises another spectacular integration of masks, puppets, pantomime, theatrical effects, and dynamic orchestration.