Phoenix Theatre to Stage World Premiere of PULP

Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis announces the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Pulp, opening February 11, 2016 on the Steve and Livia Russell Stage. This production runs through March 6, with Bryan Fonseca serving as director.

In 1930's Los Angeles, washed-up PI Frank Ellery takes on the strangest case of his life. A noted literary agent has been gruesomely murdered, and the four suspects are his remaining clients, all writers for different pulp magazines. Frank dives into the mystery, and his world turns upside down as life begins to imitate literature. In this new comedy, science fiction, romance, adventure, and horror combine with one down-on-his-luck gumshoe who's about to learn what really lurks between the lines.

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 please visit www.nnpn.org.

For 33 years, 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 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.

The cast includes Josh Coomer as Bradley Rayburn, Ian Cruz as R.A. Lyncroft, Michael Hosp as Walter Cranston-Smith, Eric J. Olson as Frank Ellery, and Angela R. Plank as Desiree St. Clair.

Josh Coomer was previously seen at the Phoenix in last season's Clark Gable Slept Here. Other Phoenix credits include Rancho Mirage and North of the Boulevard. He is a graduate of Ball State's Theatre Department, and he received his MFA from the prestigious National Theatre Conservatory.

Ian Cruz is ecstatic to be back on the Phoenix stage! Stage credits include: Stuff Happens at Phoenix Theatre, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Wisdom Tooth, La Casa Azul at GHDT, Anything Goes at Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Drowsy Chaperone, West Side Story, and Aida at Civic.

Michael Hosp is returning to the Phoenix after appearing in the season opener, One Man, Two Guvnors. His Phoenix debut was in last season's The Cripple of Inishmaan. Michael currently serves as the Associate Artist Director of EclecticPond Theatre Company, and is a full-time actor/interpreter at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

Eric J. Olson marks his 13th show at the Phoenix with Pulp. His favorite Phoenix performances include Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Andrew Jackson), American Idiot (St. Jimmy), and Avenue Q (Nicky). Eric portrayed Houdini in the 1st National Tour of Ragtime; other theatres include Goodspeed Opera House, Trinity Repertory Company, Sacramento Music Circus, The Kennedy Center, and many more.

Angela R. Plank returns to the Phoenix after previously appearing in their productions of The Lyons, Next Fall, In the Next Room, and Reasons to be Pretty.

Joseph Zettelmaier is a Michigan-based playwright and four-time nominee for the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association Award for best new play, first in 2006 for All Childish Things, then in 2007 for Language Lessons, in 2010 for It Came From Mars and in 2012 for Dead Man's Shoes. Other plays include The Decade Dance, Ebenezer, Northern Aggression, Dr. Seward's Dracula, The Gravedigger, The Stillness Between Breaths, The Scullery Maid, and Salvage. The Stillness Between Breaths and It Came From Mars were selected to appear in the National New Play Network's Festival of New Plays. It Came From Mars was a recipient of 2009's Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award. Dead Man's Shoes received the same award in 2011. Joseph is an Artistic Associate at First Folio Theatre in Oak Brook, IL, and an adjunct lecturer at Eastern Michigan University, where he teaches Dramatic Composition, Stage Management, Stage Combat, and Play Production.

Tickets for Pulp 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. During CheapSeats Weekend, February 11-14, all tickets are $20. Tickets for Pulp 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.

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