COVER STORY {by karen werner}
100 Years a Player
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The Phoenix Theatre Company Celebrates its Centennial
oday, The Phoenix Theatre Company is an arts institution and one of the leading employers of actors, artists and theater techs in Arizona. But nearly a century ago, it operated out of a coach house on the Heard property and used fans and ice blocks to keep the audience cool. Travel back in time to learn how the city’s oldest theatrical institution came to be, and look ahead to its exciting future. 24 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | FEBRUARY 2020
“The Phoenix Players started in 1920 with a production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in a downtown park. They performed in a hair salon at one point,” said Michael Barnard, producing artistic director of The Phoenix Theatre Company. At the time, the population was a bustling 30,000, but there were few arts for the community to enjoy. Enter Maie Bartlett Heard of Heard Museum fame, who volunteered to let the fledgling troupe use her carriage house on Central and McDowell as a theater.
