IRT—The 1970s

IRT founders Ed Stern, Greg Poggi, and Ben Mordecai.

Robert Scogin and Jeremiah Sullivan in The Tavern, 1976. Greg Poggi and IRT staff install seats at the Athenaeum.

Three IU grad students—Ben Mordecai, Greg Poggi, and Ed Stern—decided, with what Poggi described as “boisterous naiveté,” to start their own theatre. And a professional resident theatre was one thing Indianapolis was missing…. Three academics with no professional theatre experience, no roots in the Midwest, and a dusty theatre space (the Athenaeum), but no money—that was a combination that could spell disaster. As Mordecai later explained, “The whole process of founding the Indiana Repertory Theatre was discovering what the questions were, discovering how to answer them, and then learning what the next question really was.”

The Indianapolis News ran this blurb about The Tavern in 1976: “Where did the Indiana Repertory Theatre find all those leaves to blow through the Tavern door each time it opens to a raging storm? ‘I had 30 bags of leaves behind my garage,’ explained IRT artistic director Ed Stern after last night’s opening performance. ‘I’m thinking about having a storm show at IRT each spring to get rid of my leaves.’”

As opening night approached, they had a stage, scenery, costumes, actors—and no audience seats. By chance, the Old Brown Theatre in Louisville was undergoing renovation then and offered to donate 340 of its seats, but it gave IRT only 72 hours to remove and move them. It was a deal they couldn’t refuse. Mordecai reported that “all available personnel and friends of IRT rushed to Louisville with crowbars,” just days before the first play opened.

“Oh, my, the Athenaeum! The building was ancient even then,” actor Nicholas Hormann recalled of his Indianapolis debut there in the 1977 production of Private Lives. “Pigeons nesting in the fly gallery, dropping stuff on the piano keys. Winter drafts whistling through the building. It was January/February in Indianapolis. I shivered in a lightweight summer suit. Shivered in the wings. Shivered onstage. I remember shivering through the entire run.”

Nicholas Hormann and Sara Woods in Private Lives, 1977.

The cast of Charley’s Aunt, 1972.

The “Gala Grand Opening” of IRT occurred on October 18, 1972, with a reception to follow. The premiere performance of Charley’s Aunt was, Anne Stern recalled, pure entertainment, and the mood festive. “The food was delicious, but the same cheap Champagne was served as at every Opening Night party. I remember the guests were so excited to meet the actors and staff in person. It felt like one big family celebration.” Priscilla Lindsay (in her first performance at the IRT) with James Noble (later a star of TV’s Benson) in the 1974 production of Harvey.

EXCERPTS FROM FIVE DECADES OF WONDER: INDIANA REPERTORY THEATRE BY DONNA L. REYNOLDS

The limitations of the IRT’s space at the Athenaeum began posing problems. A 1977 article in the Louisville Times noted: “Like so many regional theatres, IRT is caught in a vicious cycle. It doesn’t have the money or the reputation yet to compete for better actors. Most of its shows play to large, near-capacity audiences. But since it is housed in a 396-seat theatre, its audience growth is limited. IRT can’t make any great artistic leap forward until it has a larger audience and a larger budget.… Within the next three or four seasons, Edward Stern and Benjamin Mordecai hope to move IRT into a permanent home in one of the large downtown movie palaces. Once there, they feel new surroundings and civic pride will inspire greater attendance and a larger budget.”