Madame Walker Theatre names interim leader
Anita Harden, retired president of Community Hospital East, will guide the local cultural organization while it evaluates its long-term strategy.
Theater
Articles
Athenaeum receives Basile gift to help fund $1.2M in theater repairs
Local philanthropists Frank and Katrina Basile have contributed $225,000 toward a fundraising campaign for renovating the theater, which will be renamed for the couple.
LOU’S VIEWS: Civil warriors clash–and team up–in Phoenix Theatre’s “Butler”
The best legal thriller I’ve seen in years, Richard Strand’s “Butler” doesn’t venture anywhere near a courtroom, judge’s chamber or jury room.
Phoenix Theatre moving from longtime home by Mass Ave
The purveyor of contemporary plays and musicals plans to leave the popular cultural district, where patrons now struggle to find street parking, for three properties on North Illinois Street.
Live Nation’s deal to buy Old National Centre unravels
The group that owns the landmark entertainment and hospitality venue in downtown Indianapolis has decided not to sell the building after Live Nation made an offer late last year.
Butler corrals performing venues under new executive director
The hiring of Texas arts administrator Ty Sutton is part of a strategy to streamline ticketing and booking at campus venues and enhance Butler’s presence as an arts destination.
Theater at Fort Benjamin Harrison finds new life
This October, the 86-year-old theater will come to life again. A collaboration between a local arts organization, Partnerships for Lawrence, and the city of Lawrence, which is paying for repairs, is making it possible.
LOU’S VIEWS: When musicals rock
Plus ten written-for-musicals songs that you can play in the company of your rocker friends.
LOU’S VIEWS: Youth theater breaks rules and invents new ones
You don’t send your kids to Young Actors Theatre to turn them into stars. You send them to foster a love of creating.
LOU’S VIEWS: Laugh-a-lot ‘Spamalot’ gets ambitious Civic production
You could feel that split between those who knew what would be catapulted over the French castle wall and those baffled, at least at first, by what all the silliness was about.
LOU’S VIEWS: Romance rules at the IRT for ‘What I Learned in Paris’ and ‘Ray and Ella’
Lou Harry reviews Indiana Repertory Theatre’s production of “What I Learned in Paris” (through April 12) and Dance Kaleidoscope’s “Ray & Ella.”
Deciding whether to join union a tough call for Indianapolis actors
Whether to join the union has always been a dilemma for regional actors, but in Indianapolis the decision is even more difficult as non-union professional theaters proliferate and offer plum roles to build experience.
LOU’S VIEWS: Children’s Museum bags kid-lit bestseller
Before the spunky Fiona showed her true colors in “Shrek,” fairy-tale tropes were turned upside down in “The Paper Bag Princess.” Ben Asaykwee’s theatrical adaptation does it justice.
City seeking redevelopment ideas for IRT building
Built in 1927, the city-owned landmark has served as the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s home for 35 years. The city and the not-for-profit are working on a lease renewal.
LOU’S VIEWS: More than good, ‘Good People’ marks IRT season high point
Sparks fly because these people’s different experiences—the lives they’ve led, choices they’ve made, and ways they’ve opted to remember and/or forget their pasts—actually conflict.
LOU’S VIEWS: Great A&E expectations with 15 high-hopes picks for 2015
A wordless “Peter Pan,” pianists in competition, and a musical “Idiot” among potential highlights in coming months.
‘Velveteen’ at IRT lures next generation of theatergoers
The IRT is aiming for a younger audience, staging James Still’s adaptation of Margery Williams' classic children's book "The Velveteen Rabbit" for the preschool set in its underused cabaret space.
Ball State-birthed musical aims for Broadway
If the team behind “The Circus in Winter” has its way (and if enough money can be raised and script kinks worked out), the Ball State University-incubated musical might be the first Tony award winner conceived as a collaborative class project.
Carmel’s Center for the Performing Arts ups ambition after stemming red ink
Nearly four years after the Center for the Performing Arts’ Carmel high-profile debut, its second full-time CEO says the startup has stabilized operations and is ready to grow its eclectic mix of programming.
LOU’S VIEWS: ‘The Voice’ winner takes lead in Broadway’s ‘Pippin’
Indianapolis singer Josh Kaufman said Thursday he'll be taking a turn as the lead in the Tony Award-winning revival "Pippin."