For Immediate Release: October 3, 2006
Media Contact: Sharla Feldscher, for Enchantment Theatre Company, 215.627.0801 x101

Enchantment Theatre Company lights up the stage this holiday season with Beauty and the Beast, the timeless mythical tale of courage and compassion told through the graceful performances of masked actors, life-size puppets, and captivating illusions. Also featuring beautiful scenery and romantic music, this imaginative love story offers something for every member of the family! Beauty and the Beast opens on December 11 and runs through December 30 with more than two dozen performances at The Mandell Theater in Philadelphia. On December 17, following the 4 p.m. performance, well-respected therapist and author SaraKay Smullens will lead a post-show discussion on how stories are crucial to children's development. (See schedule below.)

The tale of Beauty and the Beast may be well-known to the stage and screen, but Enchantment Theatre Company tells this story in its unique style, demonstrating the love and compassion of Beauty, who befriends a monstrous creature to save her beloved father's life; and the transformation of the Beast, whose loneliness and despair bring his true goodness to the surface. The production offers surprises at every turn, including spectacular magic tricks and illusions, comical puppets and an enchanting original score.

Audiences of all ages will be astonished and delighted when delicate butterflies flitter from a box; Beauty magically floats above her bed and then disappears into thin air; and the Beast is transformed into his true character, the Prince.

Enchantment Theatre Company, the locally based company that performs throughout the world, has been playing to Philadelphia audiences since 2000, when it committed itself to becoming the city's theatrical group for children and families. Each year the company has presented a lavish holiday production on a downtown stage, including such favorites as Snow Queen, Cinderella and Pinocchio.

Founded in 1979 by Jennifer Blatchley Smith and Landis Smith, both writers and performers, 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. The company has toured in the Far East six times, performing in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. It also has performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center in New York City and at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. In addition to touring its productions across the United States and overseas, Enchantment Theatre stages additional repertoire with symphony orchestras, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which it collaborated on a theatrical adaptation of Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" at The Kimmel Center in November 2003.

Leslie Reidel, Enchantment Theatre's Resident Director and writer, is currently a Professor of Theater at the University of Delaware. His directorial credits include the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, the Utah, Colorado and Fort Worth Shakespeare Festivals, and 12 years as resident director of the Great American Children's Theater. Award-winning composer Andy Teirstein has collaborated with Enchantment Theatre on several productions, including Beauty and the Beast. In addition to writing soundtracks for the company, Teirstein has created scores for several PBS and BBC films, and he has received awards from the NEA, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Meet the Composer. He is currently on the faculty of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Beauty and the Beast is 60 minutes and features a question and answer session following each performance. It is being performed at The Mandell Theater, 33rd and Chestnut Streets, on the campus of Drexel University in Philadelphia. Ticket prices are $26-20 for adults, $14-10 for children, with special group rates as low as $8 per ticket, and $2 discount for seniors. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Enchantment Theatre Company Box Office at (215) 881-9899 or by visiting www.enchantmenttheatre.org.

Show times are as follows:

• Monday - Friday, Dec. 11-15 at 10 a.m. with a 7 p.m. show on the 13th
• Saturday, Dec. 16 at 11 a.m., 1 and 7 p.m.
• Sunday, Dec. 17 at 1 and 4 p.m.
  On December 17, following the 4 p.m. performance of Beauty and the Beast, Enchantment Theatre Company will offer a post-show discussion with well-respected social worker, family therapist and author, SaraKay Smullens. Smullens will lead a discussion about how stories are crucial to children's development. Like the founders of Enchantment Theatre Company, she believes that theater gives children the power to accept, cope, dream and soar.
• Tuesday - Friday, Dec. 19-22 at 10 a.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 23 at 11 a.m, 1 and 4 p.m.
• Tuesday - Friday, Dec. 26-29 at 1 and 4 p.m.
• Saturday, Dec. 30 at 11 a.m., 1 and 4 p.m.

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