Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis)

The Phoenix Theatre is a professional non-profit theatre located in downtown Indianapolis, on Park Avenue near Massachusetts Avenue. It was founded by Bryan D. Fonseca in 1983, initially to perform the three-part (three evening) science fiction play, Warp!. It is housed in a church where Jim Jones once preached, a fact that was brought into their production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The theatre continues to be run by Fonseca, who serves as Producing Director and directs many of the produced plays.

Fare at the Phoenix tends to be edgy, often with adult language and situations, violence, and even occasional nudity. They have often featured plays dealing with sexuality, homosexuality, women's issues, AIDS, African-American issues (they have done all of August Wilson's plays as they became available for regional theatre use), abuse, and mental disorders.

In 2002, they began using half-seasons, after a coup created by some scheduling problems allowed them to acquire the rights to Bat Boy: The Musical before it would have been available to theatres with full seasons, thus they were the first regional theatre ever to perform the play.

The theatre also hosts the annual Festival of Emerging American Theatre (FEAT) Awards, originally an open but now a closed competition, which has resulted in productions of anywhere from one to four world premiere productions each season. Toni Press-Coffman, with two FEAT wins, became playwright-in-residence in 2000, not long after the second of these was chosen.

Production history

(*=world premiere production)

1983-1984

1984-1985

1985-1986

1986-1987

1987-1988

1988-1989

1989-1990

1990-1991

1991-1992

1992-1993

1993-1994

1994-1995

1995-1996

1996-1997

1997-1998

1998-1999

1999-2000

2000-2001

2001-2002

2002 - 2003

2003-2004

2004-2005

2005-2006

2006-2007

2007-2008

2008-2009

2009-2010

External links