Phoenix Theater To Present Post Play Discussion Of IN THE NEXT ROOM 10/10

The Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis will be presenting a post-play discussion following the October 10th performance of In the Next Room - or the vibrator play. Written by MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Sarah Ruhl, this Pulitzer Prize-finalist and Tony Award-nominated play opened Thursday, September 30 on the Phoenix Mainstage and plays through Sunday, October 24, 2010. The discussion, titled "Sexuality in the Nineteenth Century," will be lead by Timothy Crumrin, Director, Experience/Senior Historian at Connor Prairie and will take place immediately following the 2:00 pm Sunday, October 10th performance.

At the dawn of the electrical age, a new medical device is invented to treat (and pacify) "hysterical" women, but it unknowingly produces a very different result in the female - and male -characters who share their stories of repressed sexuality and physical exploration with equal doses of humor and emotion. Set in the Victorian era just before its corseted women shed their inhibitions, In the Next Room - or the vibrator play is surprisingly romantic, captivatingly charming and historically accurate.

Throughout history human sexuality has been alternately ignored, obfuscated, hidden, glorified, swept under the rug or lied about. That notwithstanding, sexuality is indeed a fact of history and one that cannot be ignored. As such, knowledge about the history of sexuality, if deployed properly, can play a subtle but important role in understanding human character, as well as characters in a play, and adding to well-rounded historical interpretation.

AfterWords: Sunday, October 10, 2010

A post-play discussion after the 2:00 pm performance (start time approximately 4:30 pm) will be lead by Timothy Crumrin, Experience/Senior Historian at Conner Prairie since 1989. From 1992-1996 he was Adjunct Professor of History at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College. He holds an AB (Summa Cum Laude) in European History and a Master's in American history from Indiana State University. He is a member of the Indiana Association of Historians (executive board, 1997-2002), Society of Indiana Archivists (President, 1995), and Organization of American Historians. Mr. Crumrin has written or edited more than 30 scholarly publications and made numerous presentations at conferences sponsored by the Organization of American Historians and the Indiana Historical Society, among others. He is the writer and director of Harvesting the Past, a documentary dealing with the rural history of Indiana, that appeared on PBS and received a 2003 Telly Award for documentary excellence.

AfterWords is a series of post-play discussions at The Phoenix Theatre. All discussions are free and open to the public; ticket purchase is not necessary.

About the Playwright

Sarah Ruhl's plays include The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American Award); Dead Man's Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play), Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations), and Eurydice. Her plays have premiered at Lincoln Center Theater, the Goodman Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award and the Whiting Writers' Award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006.

Ticket Prices

All seating is general admission on a first-come, first-served basis and all Thursday tickets are $15, thanks to a grant by Duke Energy; Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances are $25. Performance times are: Thursdays at 7pm; Friday and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm.

Doors open ½ hour prior to curtain for seating. The Phoenix Pub, located inside the theatre, offers beer, wine, soft drinks, coffee, and bottled water, as well as treats, and all refreshments may be taken into the theatre and consumed during the performance.

For more information about any Phoenix Productions or to purchase tickets, call The Phoenix Theatre box office at 317.635.7529. Tickets may also be purchased online. The theatre's website is www.phoenixtheatre.org.

ABOUT The Phoenix Theatre
"The Phoenix Theatre has cornered the market on hip new works." -- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

The Phoenix Theatre is Indiana's only professional Contemporary Theatre, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for 26 years. An Equity house, the Theatre presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many popular Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented more than 70 world premieres in its quarter century. The Phoenix operates the 130-seat proscenium Mainstage as well as the 75-seat cabaret-style black box Frank & Katrina Basile (buh-SEAL) Theatre. The Phoenix Pub, located in the Basile Theatre, serves beer, wine, coffee, soft drinks, water, and treats, and patrons may take all refreshments into either theatre. Both venues are housed along with administrative offices in a renovated 1907 church in downtown Indianapolis' historic Chatham Arch neighborhood, part of the Mass Ave Arts & Theatre District. The Phoenix Theatre is a member of the National New Play Network and the League of Indianapolis Theatres, and is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as local corporate and foundation funders and more than 500 individual donors.

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