Theater roundup

 

The Phoenix Theatre will begin their season with The Exonerated, a script based on real-life stories of six innocent survivors of Death Row, collected and made into a play by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. The Exonerated closed in March 2004 after a four-and-a-half-year run on Off Broadway. Bryan Fonseca will direct the ensemble drama, which runs Sept. 16-Oct. 10, Thursdays at 6:30 p.m., Fridays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $22.50; under age 25 are $12. For more information, call the Phoenix Theatre, 749 N. Park Ave., 635-PLAY, or go to www.phoenixtheatre.org.

NoExit, with the support of Susurrus Performance Group, will present David Henry Hwang’s The Sound of a Voice and The House of Sleeping Beauties Sept. 16-25 at the LAMP Fine Art Gallery, 901 N. East St., as their inaugural show.

The show explores how intimacy is achieved between people who have lived in seclusion. The battles of love become a deadly contest in these tales, blurring the distinctions between hero and coward, between victor and vanquished.

The Sound of a Voice and The House of Sleeping Beauties will be the first Internet-directed play of the Midwest, furthering NoExit’s mission of performance experimentation. The piece will be directed by Ronald Gilliam from New York, N.Y., and transmitted to NoExit’s rehearsal studio in Indianapolis. There will be a short question and answer period following each performance in which the technology utilized for the performance will be further explained.

Shows are Sept. 16-19 and 23-25 at 8 p.m., except Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $15; $10 for students. For more info: www.noexit.org, 971-NOEX.

Mud Creek Players, 9740 E. 86th. St., will open their season with Star on the Door. Doreen Lewis, an aging silver screen star, is finally launching her Broadway career, but her hopes for a grand opening are put in jeopardy as rehearsal begins. Dates are Sept. 17-Oct. 2, Fridays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. plus Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 26, 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $10; $8 students and seniors. 290-5343.

The Indiana Repertory Theatre begins their season with a classic: Pride and Prejudice. Mrs. Bennet, with five daughters to marry off, tries to hook Lizzy with Mr. Darcy, but Lizzy will have nothing to do with him. Country balls, hunting parties, smoldering looks across the room and a bit of high jinks propel Darcy and Lizzy toward the altar on their bumpy ride to undo his pride and her prejudice. Show are Sept. 17-Oct. 9; various Tuesdays at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., various Thursdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 7:30 p.m., various Saturdays at 1, 4, 5, 8 and 9 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. ASL Interpretation and Audio Description will be offered on Sept. 26, 2 p.m. The IRT is located at 140 W. Washington St., 635-5252, www.indianarep.com.

Epilogue Players, 1849 Alabama St., begins with Ghost Story, written and directed by Marsha Grant. In this comedy of errors and laptop computers, a righteous whistle-blower for a big corporation and her daughter are sequestered in a safe house on Chesapeake Bay, only to find it is already occupied by the ghosts of Edward Teach, Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow and Ma Barker. Shows are Sept. 17-Oct. 3, Fridays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $8; 255-2994.

Finally, the first of the season’s touring productions lands at Pike Performing Arts Center when Smokey Joe’s Cafe is performed Sept. 18-19. Relive the golden years of rock through 30 songs from the ’50s written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Pike is located at 6701 Zionsville Road. Call 216-5455.