Announcing our 58th Season, 2013-2014
After the recent vote by our membership, Footlite Musicals is proud to announce our 58th Season, 2013-2014.
Young Frankenstein (Young Adults Production)
July 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan
Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks
Young Frankenstein is a musical version of the Mel Brooks’ movie of the same name about the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein and his creation of a new creature. The musical is the creation of the authors of the record-breaking Broadway sensation The Producers. The show contains such memorable tunes as “The Transylvania Mania,” “He Vas My Boyfriend” and “Puttin’ On The Ritz.” This Young Adults Production will feature performers ranging in age from 18 to 25. Directed by Kathleen Horrigan.
Xanadu (Young Artists Production)
August 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18
Book by Douglas Carter Beane
Music and Lyrics by Jeff Lynne and John Farrar
Based on the Universal Pictures film with a screenplay by Richard Danus & Marc Rubel
Xanadu follows the journey of a magical and beautiful Greek muse, Kira, who descends from the heavens of Mt. Olympus to Venice Beach, CA, in 1980 on a quest to inspire a struggling artist, Sonny, to achieve the greatest artistic creation of all time – the first roller disco! But, when Kira falls into forbidden love with the mortal Sonny, her jealous sisters take advantage of the situation and chaos abounds. This roller-skating musical is based on the cult classic movie of the same title, which starred Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. This Young Artists Production will feature performers ranging in age from 13 to 18. Directed by Ed Trout.
Sunset Boulevard
September 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, 3, 4, 5, 6
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Book and Lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton
Based on the Billy Wilder film of the same name
Sunset Boulevard weaves a magnificent tale of faded glory and unfulfilled ambition. Silent movie star Norma Desmond longs for a return to the big screen, having been discarded by tinsel town with the advent of “talkies.” Her glamour has faded in all but her mind. When she meets struggling Hollywood screenwriter Joe Gillis in dramatic circumstances, their subsequent passionate and volatile relationship leads to an unforeseen and tragic conclusion. Directed by Rich Baker.
White Christmas
November 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, December 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Book by David Ives and Paul Blake
Based on the Paramount Pictures film of the same name, written by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank
Based on the beloved film, this heartwarming musical adaptation features 17 Irving Berlin songs. Veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis have a successful song-and-dance act after World War II. With romance in mind, the two follow a duo of beautiful singing sisters en route to their Christmas show at a Vermont lodge, which just happens to be owned by Bob and Phil’s former army commander. Directed by Bob Harbin.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Annual Cabaret Production)
January 10 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26
Text by John Cameron Mitchell
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical about a fictional rock and roll band fronted by an East German transgender singer. The character of Hedwig was originally inspired by a German divorced U.S. Army wife who moonlighted as a prostitute at her Kansas trailer park home. The music is steeped in the androgynous 1970s glam rock era of David Bowie, as well as the work of John Lennon and early punk godfathers Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. Directed by Paige Scott.
La Cage Aux Folles
March 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23
Book by Harvey Fierstein
Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman
Based on the play by Jean Poiret
After 20 years of un-wedded bliss Georges and Albin, two men partnered for better-or-worse get a bit of both when Georges’ son (fathered during a one-night fling) announces his impending marriage to the daughter of a bigoted, right-wing politician. Further complicating the situation is the “family business:” Albin and Georges run a transvestite nightclub in St. Tropez, where Albin is the “star” performer Zaza. Georges reluctantly agrees to masquerade as “normal” when he meets the family of the bride-to-be. But Albin has other plans, with hilarious results. Directed by Kathleen Horrigan.
Nine
May 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18
Book by Arthur Kopit
Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston
Adapted from the Italian by Mario Fratti
Based on Federico Fellini’s film 8 1/2
This musical was the winner of Tony Awards for Best Musical (1982) and Best Revival of a Musical (2003). Nine is the story of a celebrated Italian film director, Guido Contini, and his attempts to come up with a plot for his next film as he is pursued by hordes of beautiful women, all clamoring to be loved by him and him alone. Flashbacks reveal the substance of his life, which will become the material for his next film: a musical version of the Casanova story. Directed by Tim Spradlin.
Footlite Receives Grants from Lilly Endowment and Allen Whitehill Clowes
Lilly Endowment Grant For A New Lighting System
Footlite Musicals will have a new lighting system to showcase our stage productions, thanks to a $100,000 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded in September. The system, including a new light board, dimmers, wiring, and remote stations, will not only control the lights suspended from the battens, but also dim the house and other lights from the board.
In late spring 2011, an ad hoc committee including professionals in lighting systems determined Footlite’s needs for stage lighting, wiring, new instruments and a light board. Most of the current equipment is over thirty years old, and the technology has improved greatly during the intervening years. Modern systems provide higher intensity light and use less electricity doing it.
The first step in meeting Footlite’s needs was to improve the lighting of the front part of the stage by installing three power-winched battens in the ceiling of the auditorium. These and the stage battens will be fitted with new LED energy efficient lights. All of these lighting improvements provide a safer work environment for lighting designers and crews.
Footlite Musicals will be seeking other grants and donations for the LED energy-efficient lights, low voltage wiring, and installation.
Allen Whitehill Clowes Grant to Footlite Musicals
The Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Inc., granted Footlite Musicals in October 2012 $58,000 to be used to repair roofs over the west and south portions of the Hedback Theater building. The repairs will keep the shop, southwest rooms, lobby and kitchen dry. One part of the roof will be raised and sloped to keep water flowing, so it will not freeze and dam up, resulting in big leaks in the winter.
Blackmore & Buckner Roofing has been contracted to perform the work.
Other grants to Footlite Musicals from The Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Inc., were used to buy the parking lot, repair the roof over the stage, repair the exit areas on the north of the Hedback Theater building, and install three motorized lighting battens in the auditorium.
Footlite Musicals Named Recipient of Lighting Grant
Footlite Musicals received a large grant in late October to improve the stage lighting in its home theater, the Hedback Community Theater at 1847 North Alabama Street, Indianapolis.
The $165,500 grant from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation will be used to finance the installation of a light batten to illuminate the front of the stage. The grant will also finance the replacement of two existing battens on the ceiling over the front of the auditorium with powered theatrical hoists that can be lowered for setting lighting fixtures and placing gels on them, as well as to perform maintenance as required.
Aerial Arts will install the power battens. This well-respected local business which has completed most of the installations in the major theaters in Indianapolis also installed a new rigging system on Footlite’s stage in the spring of 2010. In addition, Aerial Arts will train those individuals who will be operating the equipment at the end of the installation.
The new, safer environment in which to work will help attract high quality lighting designers and crews, according to Footlite representatives. Following this first step, additional lighting fixtures and a new light board will be installed as funds become available.
Now in the midst of its 56th theatrical season, Footlite Musicals is Indianapolis’s oldest continuously operating community theatre. Footlite assumed this position when the Booth Tarkington Civic Theater moved from Indianapolis to Carmel this past fall.
Help Us Fill the New Lighting Battens
No contribution is too small to help us fill the new lighting battens with lights. If eight people each contribute $1,000, or 16 people each donate $500, or 32 people each contribute $250, or 320 people each contribute $25, we will have $8,000 to pay for lighting instruments already acquired through an unexpected source.
Make checks payable to Footlite Musicals’ Building Fund and designate “lights” on the memo line. Mail checks to 1847 North Alabama Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202, or make a donation online on our revamped support pages.
Footlite Spotlights New Stage Rigging and Railing
Footlite Musicals has a new counterweight system on its stage. The system features aluminum guide tracks for the counterweights, dimmable lighting, and a hard-wired plug strip for the first electric rail. It allows curtains and drops to fly in and out of a scene with precision and ease. The system provides additional safety and conforms to the latest standards. It is being used for the first time in Footlite’s production of Oliver!
Aerial Arts, Inc. (AAI), the Indiana professional theatrical rigging company that installed it, also did installations in Hilbert Circle Theatre, the Athenaeum, and Lucas Oil Stadium, as well as other work at the Artsgarden, the Mainstage at IRT and the Murat.
The old system at Footlite Musical’s Hedback Theater was cobbled together components from some older Indianapolis theaters, perhaps the Keith or Lyric. “But there can be no denying that it delivered good service for 60 years,” Herb Dwyer, President of AAI said. “The old system was, perhaps, installed by Thomas Brothers, the precursor to Indianapolis Stage. One of the Thomas’ names is on a beam. According to another ‘tag’ on one of the steel beams, Joe Quinn in 1951 also helped put in the system. Joe was the stage manager for ISO for many, many years later in his career.”
The new rigging and railing system was supported by a $250,000 grant from Lilly Endowment.
