June 21: Constance Macy & Bill Simmons
By Rotary Club of Indianapolis on June 17, 2022
 Join us Tuesday to hear from Constance Macy the new artistic director of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre and Bill Simmons the former artistic director for the “Passing of the Artistic Baton.” Constance was recently named as the artistic director after serving on an interim basis since January. She is the theater’s third artistic director and first female in the role in its nearly 40-year history. She follows Bill Simmons, who had been serving in the role since 2018. Bill became the full-time major campaign director in January. Constance Macy is the newly named Artistic Director of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. She is the third A.D. in the theatre’s 35-year history (following Bill Simmons & founder Bryan Fonseca) and the first woman to hold the title. She is a native Hoosier and has been an Indy-based theatre artist for more than 30 years. As a professional actor, she has appeared on regional stages such as Indiana Repertory Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company in Utah, Geva Theatre Center in Rochester NY, Syracuse Stage, Playmakers Rep in North Carolina, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Bloomington’s Cardinal Stage, Indianapolis Shakespeare Company, and the New Harmony Project, as well as the Phoenix where she last appeared as Margaret Sanger in The Pill by Tom Horan. She also puts her acting skills to good use at the IU Health Simulation Center, a training facility for IU’s Schools of Medicine and Nursing. As a director/producer, she led the collective ensemble ShadowApe Theatre Company from 1998 to 2010, and has directed plays for Butler University, Anderson University, Franklin College, Summer Stock Stage and the Phoenix (Bakersfield Mist by Stephen Sachs). She has taught acting at Butler University and spent 15 years with the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s Summer Conservatory for Youth. Constance is a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow (only 10 regional theatre actors from across the country are chosen for this honor each year), a two-time Arts Council of Indianapolis Creative Renewal Fellow, and was honored by the Indianapolis Foundation as an Indy Theatre MVP at their 100th Anniversary Celebration. She received her training at Indiana University Bloomington and in master classes through the years. Her teachers include David Hyde Pierce and the late great Olympia Dukakis. Bill Simmons A 1991 graduate of Indiana University with a double major in journalism and political science, Bill Simmons began his professional career as an arts administrator in 1993 as director of communications for Starlight Musicals Indianapolis. His arts administration career includes serving as director of development and marketing for the Madame Walker Theatre Center, director of development for the Indianapolis Art Center, an independent consultant for the Arts Council of Indianapolis, And from June 2018 until this January, he was a second Artistic Director of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. While working for arts organizations in the late 1990s, he spent two years studying the Sanford Meisner Acting Technique (a style of American Method Acting), with Bloomington-based actor, director, and teacher Martha Jacobs. From 2002 until 2013, he was a teaching artist for the Indiana Repertory Theatre, and from 2008-2010, he was a guest lecturer in acting for dancers at Butler University. On June 1, 2018, he was appointed artistic director of the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre. Prior to that time, Bill was capital campaign director for Phoenix Rising, a multi-million-dollar campaign to build the new 20,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art Phoenix Theatre facility on the corner of Illinois Street and the Glick Peace Walk of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. As a professional actor, director, and acting instructor since the late 1990s, Bill has worked throughout Indiana, the Midwest, and New York. He began his artistic relationship with the Phoenix in 1998 as a professional actor in an evening of Christopher Durang one-acts called Durang/Duran. His Phoenix acting career also includes August: Osage County, Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, The Washington-Sarajevo Talks, The Nether, My Name is Asher Lev, The Action Against Sol Schuman, Seminar, Clybourne Park, North of the Boulevard, Rancho Mirage, On Clover Road, and (most recently) the world premiere of Love Bird, written by local playwright K.T. Peterson. In 2012, he made his professional directing debut at the Phoenix with Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles. As a director, he has guided the Phoenix world premieres of former Phoenix playwright-in-residence Tom Horan’s Typhoid Mary, The Acid Dolphin Experiment, and The Pill. His most recent Phoenix directing credits include The Hotel Nepenthe, The Children, and Vino Veritas. From 2011-2015, he was a resident artist at Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Jeff Daniels’ Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan. His work there included world premieres of Carey Crim’s Some Couples May… and Wake as well as Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. In 2014, he began teaching the two-year Sanford Meisner Acting Technique through the Phoenix. In addition to professional theatre expertise, he has developed vital skills as an arts administrator during his tenures at the Madame Walker Theatre Centre (now Legacy Centre) in the 1990s and as director of development for the Indianapolis Art Center as it completed its campaign for the Michael Graves-designed facility and launched the campaign to build Graves’ ArtsPark sculpture and nature walk in 2002. He is a former board member of the Friends of Herron School of Art and the National New Play Network. He also is a two-time recipient of the Arts Council of Indianapolis’ Creative Renewal Fellowship. All are welcome at Rotary programs. If attending in-person at Ivy Tech Culinary and Conference Center reservations and prepayment are appreciated, but not required. Register on Square at https://rotary-club-of-indianapolis.square.site/. Lunch will be available starting at 11:45 a.m. and the program runs 12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. To join our meeting via Zoom starting at 12:15 p.m. go to https://zoom.us/j/710170874?pwd=bFE4ejJTc29IMlNzVmx1Wlg4MTA1UT09. While our Tuesday programs via Zoom are free to attend a suggested donation of $3 – $5 is appreciated in lieu of the typical room fee. These contributions help defray the cost of our hybrid meetings. Please note that donations to the Rotary Club of Indianapolis are not tax deductible. You can support our hybrid meetings at https://rotary-club-of-indianapolis.square.site/. Meeting ID: 710 170 874 Password: 821795 If joining via a mobile phone for audio only click one of the following numbers: +13126266799,,710170874#,,#,821795# US (Chicago) +19292056099,,710170874#,,#,821795# US (New York) You can also join us from a landline phone. +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) Meeting ID: 710 170 874 Password: 821795 |
