Update: After opening new Phoenix Theatre, director Fonseca leaves and talks about future

Domenica Bongiovanni | IndyStar

Bryan Fonseca, one of the longest-serving arts leaders in Indianapolis, has left his position as the producing director of the Phoenix Theatre.

The theater announced Friday that Bill Simmons, the capital campaign manager, will be the new artistic director — essentially the same role Fonseca held. Fonseca will become the founding and producing director emeritus.

"The board of directors believe that the institution now needs to redirect its energy to a solid fiscal focus, that there are other leaders more capable of putting their energies into meeting the remaining financial demands of the institution's capital campaign and future operations," said Fonseca in a news release. "I am leaving to focus my creative energies elsewhere.”

The Phoenix has raised about $8.8 million of its $11 million capital campaign for the new Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, according to Simmons. It also has been seeking an individual or business to buy the $2 million naming rights to the building, which is at Walnut and Illinois streets Downtown.

The leadership change occurred last week, Phoenix board president Frank Basile said. While Fonseca will maintain the emeritus designation, he will not have responsibilities at the theater, Basile said.

Citing the privacy of internal personnel workings, Basile did not specify exactly how the discussion of the change came about. Board member Bill Farkas said that conversations with Fonseca about a leadership change began about five years ago and the move was not timed to coincide with the opening of the new center.

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As “with any good organization, (we were) looking at what that transition would look like moving forward” as far as board leadership, staff leadership and staffing, Farkas said.

Fonseca on Saturday said he helped write the release, and he declined to comment further on leaving.

Fonseca did, however, talk about his next steps. He plans to finish up his Transformational Impact Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, for which he received $100,000. He has been working with the African-American, Latino and white populations in Near West neighborhoods to create a permanent art scene that will encourage economic development and quality of life.

Fonseca also is working with Indy Convergence, which brings together professional artists and community development opportunities, to help it transform its west-side space into a performance venue.

"I've spent two years on the Near West side, and I think it's an area that is so deserving of attention," Fonseca said.

To honor Fonseca's contributions to the Phoenix, the theater has named the stage in the Russell Theatre after the longtime producing director.

"We have attended probably 95 percent of all the plays that (Fonseca) ever produced, so that's our testimony to him is that we absolutely loved his play selection, his direction, his casting, everything involved," Basile said.

Looking to the next phase of the Phoenix, Basile is confident in Simmons' acting, directing and financial management experience. An Indiana University graduate, Simmons on Saturday said he has worked in Indianapolis since 1993. Former positions include development at the Madame Walker Theatre and the Indianapolis Art Center.

Simmons studied journalism and political science in college but became serious about acting after completing Meisner technique training with Martha Jacobs at her home in Bloomington while his wife was in law school. He began acting at the Phoenix in 1998 and began to work for the company as capital campaign manager in 2015.

"What Bryan created in the theater, I really want to expand upon, but I also want to make sure that financially we have a strong foundation for this organization to do more impactful work," Simmons said.

"My goal as artistic director is to improve the product and at the same time really focus in on major donor cultivation. We've got to make a facility and the content within the facility be something that people don't just want to buy tickets to but want to actually philanthropically support."

In the release, Fonseca expressed support for Simmons.

"Bill is a longtime member of the Phoenix community, and I am proud to have given him the opportunity to bring his significant acting and directing talents to the Phoenix stage,” said Fonseca in the release. “I will always be grateful for his tireless efforts in leading the capital campaign that brought the Phoenix to this spectacular new facility. I wish him all the best on this new leg of the journey."

As discussions about the future continued, Simmons’ name came to the forefront as the board’s choice to be the next leader of the theater’s artistic vision, Farkas said. Simmons will continue Fonseca’s plans to form a collective that nurtures and connects smaller arts organizations with the Phoenix’s audience base, Farkas said.

“Bill speaks directly to Bryan’s legacy because Bill has been so in tune with Bryan, both (from) the fundraising standpoint, from an administrative standpoint, from the artistic standpoint, so I look at this as a continuation of Bryan’s legacy,” Farkas said.

The leadership change comes about a month after the grand opening of the cultural center. The new building on the Cultural Trail tripled the space of the previous location off Massachusetts Avenue and, as a result, has expanded its programming and educational outreach.

The Phoenix, designed by Ratio Architects, now houses an art gallery, catering kitchen, costume and prop shop, and 144- and 90-seat theaters.

Simmons said he plans to add a full-time summer acting program for youth, a paid apprentice program for those looking to beef up their theater experience and a systematic program to fully workshop scripts so that playwrights can hone their craft more before their work sees its first production.

Later this month, Simmons and the Phoenix staff and board will go into a retreat process to discuss plans for the next three to five years, he said. The theater won't bring on a new full-time capital campaign manager, he said; instead, he will share capital campaign duties with director of advancement Pam Dyar.

Fonseca co-founded the Phoenix Theatre in November 1983 with Michele Stafford, according to Indianapolis Star archives. At the time, he and actors, playwrights and technicians saw a need for a theater company that focused on current works — and not merely works that premiered 15 to 20 years before. Fonseca said Saturday that Suzanne Fleenor, Deb Sargent Shaver, Gayle Steigerwald, Chuck Goad and those who participated in the first few shows were instrumental in setting up the theater.

Its first location was in the Ambassador Hotel at Ninth and Pennsylvania streets before it moved in 1988 to the old St. Stephen's Missionary Baptist Church at 749 N. Park Ave. Fonseca was instrumental throughout the process. A 1984 story in The Indianapolis Star Magazine said he worked from 8 a.m. to midnight every day to start up the new theater, taking on directing, lighting and set design tasks.

The Phoenix had many sellout shows during its first season and quickly became a staple. In 1993, it raised its reputation in the city by contracting with the Actors' Equity Association and hiring more actors who are part of the national stage professionals' union.

Since the Phoenix's inception, it has sought to push social boundaries to challenge audiences' perceptions of the status quo. Its productions include "Sweat" in 2018, which deals with racial tension after a union strike, and "Keely and Du" in 1994, which is about a pregnant woman who makes friends with her caretaker after a fanatical anti-abortion group kidnaps her.

Throughout the Phoenix Theatre's history, Fonseca has championed casting racial minority actors in roles traditionally played by white actors. As recently as 2016, he wrote a letter to the editor in IndyStar highlighting the need for minority-run arts organizations and African-American directors. Fonseca also has brought Latino actors and writers to the stage.

"I think theater should be entertaining, but I think we should try to communicate something as well," Fonseca told the magazine in 1984. "Maybe you can touch the mainstream consciousness a little by doing something that's not mainstream. We're not an issue-oriented theater, but a lot of things we do here come head-to-head with such issues as women's concerns, gay rights, coping with economics, the search for fulfillment, an individual's sense of a need for accomplishment."

Call IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at (317) 444-7339. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.