|
|
|
 Janet Allen - Artistic Director
This season is Janet's twelfth at the artistic helm of the IRT. Her time at the theatre spans 26 of the company's 36 years: beginning as the IRT's first literary manager dramaturg in 1980, Allen then served ten years as associate artistic director under mentors Tom Haas and Libby Appel before she was named the IRT's fourth artistic director in 1996.
During Janet's tenure, the IRT has significantly expanded its education services, establishing the Discovery Series (a fully produced, curriculum-based series of plays for Indiana youth), a year-round program of classes for children, an adult continuing education program, a teacher-training program, and a summer Conservatory for Youth. Allen's passion for nurturing playwrights has led to the creation and production of eight new works that examine Hoosier and Midwestern sensibilities, four of them from playwright-in-residence James Still. Her collaboration with Still has brought the theatre two prestigious grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, as well as numerous grants to support the creation of new work from the National Endowment for the Arts. That passion for nurturing new work extends to the inauguration of a new Central Indiana playwrighting for youth competition this year (YPiP), and the IRT's hosting of the Bonderman Playwrighting for Youth Symposium that biennially gathers playwrights from across the country. From 1996 to 2000, Allen helped lead a $16.5-million Capital-Endowment campaign which resulted in renovations to all of the IRT's public spaces and the establishment of an $8-million Endowment Fund, making the IRT among the top ten endowed theatres in the country. Allen holds an undergraduate theatre degree from Illinois State University, a masters in drama theory and dramatic literature from Indiana University, and a certification in Anglo-Irish drama from Exeter College, Oxford, England. As a classical theatre specialist, she is a published scholar and teacher of theatre history and dramaturgy at IUPUI and Butler. As a free-lance dramaturg, she has worked at a variety of New York theatres and at the New Harmony Project, where she has assisted American playwrights Regina Taylor, Anthony Clarvoe, Arthur Giron, and John Pielmeier in the development of new work. Allen's leadership skills and community service have been recognized in numerous awards, among them the Network of Women in Business¨CIBJ's 1999 "Influential Women in Business," Safeco's 2000 Beacon of Light in Our Community, the Rudy Award, a Distinguished Hoosier Award conferred in 2001 by Governor Frank O'Bannon, and Girls Inc.'s 2004 Touchstone Award for Arts Leadership. She is a graduate of the Stanley K. Lacy Leadership program (Class XIX) and the Sahnnon Leadership Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Janet sits on the advisory board of Dance Kaleidoscope, Butler's Jordan College of Fine Arts Board of Visitors, the League of Indianapolis Theatres board, and the Women's Fund of Central Indiana's advisory board. She lives in an historic downtown house with her husband, Joel Grynheim, and their daughers Leah and Nira.
|
 Steven Stolen - Managing Director
With arts experience spanning professorships, university administration, multi-million-dollar fundraising, and executive leadership, Mr. Stolen joined the IRT staff as managing director in November 2006. He serves as co-CEO of the theatre, focusing on operations, marketing, fundraising, and other business aspects of the organization, while artistic director Janet Allen focuses on the productions and the people who stage them. This position is not Steven's first association with the IRT: he has worked with the company as sound designer (Macbeth), singer (A Coward Cabaret), associate artist (2001 to 2003), and music consultant (Old Wicked Songs).
Steven came to the IRT after being executive director and CEO of the 1700-voice Indianapolis Children's Choir, the largest children's choral and education organization in the nation. Prior to that, he enjoyed a diverse fifteen-year career at Butler University as executive director of development for major gifts and campaign programs; capital gift officer providing leadership and momentum for the $30 million Performing Arts Complex project; department chair; and associate professor of music in the Jordan College of Fine Arts. A lifelong educator and teacher, he also served on the faculties at Bowling Green State University, Simpson College, Roanoke College, and Central Michigan University. A graduate of the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series, Mr. Stolen was appointed to the Indianapolis Marion County Metropolitan Development Commission and served from 2004 to 2005, and has served on the boards of many local arts and community organizations, including the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Educational Advisory for Clowes Memorial Hall, and Dance Kaleidoscope. He has been awarded a Master Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission and was an inaugural recipient of a Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.
An active concert singing artist, Steven has performed as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas; St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with Hugh Wolff; and the Indianapolis Symphony with Raymond Leppard, James Paul, Alfred Savia, Jane Glover, and Jack Everly; as well as the symphonies of St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Rochester, and many others. He has performed in New York at the BAM Festival, at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony, and in Toronto with Tafelmusik. Mr. Stolen returns to New York in January 2007 to perform a Merkin Hall concert that will feature the orchestrated premiere of Indiana composer Michael Schelle's The Misadventures of Struwwelpeter, a work written for Steven. He is founder and resident artist of Meridian Song Project, and previously was resident artist at the Indianapolis Museum of Art for seven years. He is co-editor of two song anthologies published by Hal Leonard, for whom he also has been featured on nearly two dozen recordings. His solo CD, Blame It on My Youth, was released in 1999. He is producer and host of WFYI (90.1 FM) Radio's "Opera Matinee."
|
|
|
Dale A. Duncan, Indianapolis, Board Chair
David Whitman, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, Vice Chair
Eugene Tempel, IU Foundation, Vice Chair
Susan M. Meloy, Indianapolis, Secretary
Randall J. Lewis, Anthem, Inc., Treasurer
Berkley W. Duck, Carmel, Immediate Past President
Kristin L. Altice, Shiel Sexton Company
Julie A. Carpenter, Kreig DeVault LLP
Gary Cohen, The Finish Line
Jim Freeman, OneAmerica Financial Partners
Ronald D. Gifford, Baker and Daniels
Nadine Givens, J.P. Morgan
Juan Gonzalez, Fifth Third Bank
Jane Henegar, Indianapolis
Jeffrey L. Henry, Colliers Turley Martin Tucker
Marjorie Herald, Indianapolis
Bruce Hetrick, Hetrick Communications
David R. Horth, Quest Commercial Real Estate
La Veda D. Howell, Brightpoint
Steve Jenison, Eli Lilly & Company
Thomas A. Jenkins, Hall Render Killian Heath and Lyman
David Klapper, The Finish Line
David H. Kleiman, Dann Pecar Newman & Kleiman
Gregory Krontiris, Salin Bank & Trust Company
Darwin D. May, Indianapolis
David Morgan, Merrill Lynch
David C. Pentzien, ProLiance Energy
Ana I. Pinto-Marigatti, Marigatti Interiors
Shari Alexander Richey, Ernst & Young LLP
Ellen Quigley, Indianapolis
Jerry D. Semler, OneAmerica Financial Partners
Gordon Slack, Dow AgroSciences
William E. Smith III, Indianapolis
Marta Spence, Mayor's Commission for Latino Affairs
Lorelei Tolson, Oxford Financial Group
L. Alan Whaley, Ice Miller
Warren R. Wilkinson, Republic Airways
Board Emeritus
Jane Schlegel
Robert A. Anker
Lorene Burkhart
John R. Carr Jr.
Rollin Dick
Michael Lee Gradison
Frances B. Julian
E. Kirk McKinney Jr.
Richard O. Morris
Jack R. Shaw
|
|
|