NNPN Rolling World Premiere of HOW TO USE A KNIFE to Play Phoenix Theatre

Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis announces the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of How to Use a Knife opening January 19, 2017 on the Frank and Katrina Basile Stage. This production runs through February 12, 2017, with Bryan Fonseca serving as director.

Amidst the chaos of a New York City kitchen, Chef George is trying to turn his life around. As he struggles to stay sober, he must also contend with two spirited Guatemalan line-cooks, a pot-smoking busboy, an eerily quiet African dishwasher, and, of course, the lunch hour. But now immigration authorities are knocking at the door and it becomes apparent to George that his own life isn't the only one he holds in his hands.

For 33 years, director Bryan Fonseca has served as the Producing Director of the Phoenix Theatre. He previously worked in Indianapolis as the Producing Director of the Broad Ripple Playhouse and the assistant to the Producing Director at the Civic Theatre of Indianapolis. He was a founder and first Artistic Director of The Company Players in his hometown of Gary, Indiana. Bryan has directed for the MFA Playwrights Workshop at the Kennedy Center, The Human Race Theatre, Indiana University, Ball State University, and the Civic Theatre of Indianapolis. Over the years, he has transferred six Phoenix shows to Chicago. Bryan has received an Achievement and Service award from the Indiana Theatre Association, two Artist Fellowship awards from the Indiana State Arts Commission and two Creative Renewal Fellowships from the Arts Council of Indianapolis/Lilly Endowment. He is the first recipient of the Transformational Impact Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, with the generous funding support of Lilly Endowment Inc. In addition to his work at the Phoenix, he is an adjunct professor at IUPUI and lectures frequently at Butler University and the University of Indianapolis. He has served on the board of the National New Play Network and developed and served as the first president of the League of Indianapolis Theaters.

Will Snider was born and raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His play How to Use a Knife will receive a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere this season through Capital Stage (Sacramento, CA), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and InterAct Theatre (Philadelphia, PA). Other plays include The Big Man (EST's Marathon of One-Act Plays), Strange Men, and Death of a Driver. His work has been developed at MCC, NNPN National Showcase of New Plays, The Kennedy Center, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Great Plains Theatre Conference, #serials@theflea, the claque, and MAKEHOUSE. He is a member of Youngblood, recipient of an EST/Soan Grant and The Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, and spent three years working in agricultural development in East Africa. He is pursuing an MFA at UCSD under Naomi Iizuka.

How to Use a Knife features Chelsea Anderson as Kim, Ryan Artzberger as George, Josh Castaneda as Miguel, Rob Johansen as Michael, Tommy Lewey as Jack, Carlos Medina Maldonado as Carlos, and Ansley Valentine as Steve.

Chelsea Anderson has worked with Indiana Repertory Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Forward Theater, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Heartland Actors Repertory Theatre, among others. She was most recently seen on the Phoenix stage in One Man, Two Guvnors.

Ryan Artzberger is returning to the Phoenix Theatre after having appeared in This and Reasons to be Pretty. In addition to being a regular at IRT and a company member of HART, Ryan has performed in theaters across the country, including Berkeley Rep, The Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C., The Studio Theatre, The Lookingglass Theatre and The Goodman Theatre. Ryan is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Ohio University.

Rob Johansen will appear in this NNPN Rolling World Premiere directly following his appearance in Dogs of Rwanda. Previously, he was most recently seen at the Phoenix in the NNPN Rolling World Premiere of On Clover Road.

Ansley Valentine's performance credits include several seasons with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's A Yuletide Celebration as puppet master and "Scrooge." He recently joined the theatre faculty of Indiana University. His last appearance at The Phoenix Theatre was in Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

Tickets for How to Use a Knife are on sale now. Tickets are $27.00 per person on Thursdays and Sundays, $33.00 per person on Fridays and Saturdays, and $20.00 for anyone 21 & under. Tickets for How to Use a Knife may be purchased by calling the box office at 317-635-7529 or visiting phoenixtheatre.org. Curtain times for the production are: Thursdays at 7 pm, Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 8 pm, and Sundays at 2 pm.

The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 150 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works. Additional programs - its annual National Conference, National Showcase of New Plays, and MFA Playwrights Workshop; the NNPN Annual and Smith Prize commissions; its residencies for playwrights, producers and directors; and the organization's member accessed Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks, and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the regional theater landscape. NNPN's programming allows its members and their affiliated artists to create, grow, and share new work across the country and around the world, and it strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, The New Play Exchange (www.newplayexchange.org), launched in January of 2015, is already changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it. NNPN's 31 Core and more than 65 Associate and University Members - along with the more than 250 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theater. For more information, visit www.nnpn.org.

The Phoenix Theatre is Indiana's only professional Contemporary Theatre, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for over 32 years. An Equity house, the Phoenix presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many popular Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented more than 91 world premieres. The Phoenix operates the 130-seat proscenium Livia and Steve Russell Stage as well as the 75-seat cabaret-style black box Frank and Katrina Basile Stage. 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 and Culture District. The Phoenix Theatre is a founding 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 400 individual donors.

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