When I went online yesterday, I learned that COVID had killed Bryan Fonseca–for many years one of the most consequential people in our city’s arts community, and a wonderful friend to so many of us.
Bryan was the founder–and for 35 years, the producing director–of the Phoenix Theatre. The Phoenix was the first local professional theater to produce cutting-edge new plays and emerging playwrights, and to focus on issues of inclusion and social justice while maintaining professional and technical excellence. The Phoenix was a major factor both in the revitalization of the downtown Indianapolis neighborhood in which it located in 1988 and in the enormous growth of the performing arts in our city.
When Bryan left the Phoenix, he established the Fonseca Theatre on Indianapolis’ west side, offering classes and performances and generating community and excitement in previously neglected, predominantly low-income neighborhoods. His essential mission remained the same: social justice. He was a persistent advocate for intergroup understanding, and the inclusion of people of color, women and the LGBTQ+ communities–and his steadfast commitment to that mission often made fundraising incredibly difficult.
City leaders talk a lot about the importance of science and technology to economic and community development, but a flourishing arts community is equally important. Bryan understood that a vibrant arts community–galleries, theaters, festivals, poetry readings, Fringe festivals–is essential to the forging of genuine community and to the quality of community life.
In times like these, when Americans are so divided, theatrical performance becomes particularly important, because it is through stories that we advance human understanding and self-awareness. I have previously noted that it was recognition of the importance of stories and how they are told that led to the establishment of Summit Performance, a new, woman-centered theater company in Indianapolis that tells universal stories through a female lens. What I hadn’t previously reported was that Bryan’s effort to create a artistic “collaborative” at the Phoenix was a major impetus to Summit’s formation.
I posted earlier this year about a play I had just seen at the Fonseca. It was called “The Cake,” and it was quintessential Bryan. “The Cake” was described as a play about a same-sex wedding and a bakery. I had expected a theatrical presentation of the legal challenges that have been in the news–the baker who refuses to lend his craft to an event he considers inconsistent with his religious beliefs, and the clash between civil rights and claims of religious liberty.
What I saw, instead, was a superbly acted, deeply affecting story about good people who were–inescapably– products of their upbringing, and how they reacted when forced to respond to a changing world, especially when people they dearly love are part of that change. No legal arguments, no easy villains, no preachy morals–just people trying to reconcile their own contending beliefs.
One of the many reasons that the arts are so important– not just as outlets for human creativity and communication– is that they provide the necessary “threads” that very different people use to stitch together a social fabric. Plays, movies, well-done television presentations and the like allow us to travel to places we otherwise wouldn’t visit –some geographic, but others interior and highly personal–and to understand the issues that divide us in new and more nuanced ways.
In its statement on Bryan’s death, The Phoenix quoted something he’d said in an interview:
“We are still on the precipice of revolution and revolutionary change. We have to keep pushing. We can’t retreat. Not budge. Not give an inch. Once again, don’t be placated too soon or at all by small change. Demand more. Vote. Get involved on the local level. Everything grows from the ground up. Change is grassroots.”
It will be much harder to grow and nurture those grass roots without him.
I can’t help thinking that if it weren’t for the utter lack of national leadership in combatting this virus, and the coddling and encouragement of the self-centered jerks who don’t want to wear masks, Bryan and many others might still be with us.
Vote. Your life and the lives of your friends and neighbors depend on it.
Vote!!! Who can argue with that?
Lovely tribute with a powerful message. Just the kind of creative product Bryan appreciates. Thank you for capturing the impact this man has on our City so eloquently. Now, at his direction, comes the work of change. For Marion County, Indiana residents:
https://indy.pollchief.com/pollaccess/Default.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1nbsxT9lfRhKrAdRz5gON3AY5-wDbRIz8N0DiTv8Bdsl4xeuYEUz8FeLM
The arts in its many forms feeds our mind and our soul; it stirs the mind to seek beyond the realities of today and our soul to feel outside ourselves. Science is the art of the ability to create answers to questions by combining mind and soul to a better understanding of issues. Sometimes ignoring art in book form, such as “The Art Of The Deal” which informed us years ago of the many dangers of Donald Trump, comes to us in a frightening reality we cannot ignore. Or the play “The Cake” which was a sample of what has become this nation’s life-or-death election year; pitting our civil rights of the majority against the CLAIMS of religious liberty of the few.
“Plays, movies, well-done television presentations and the like allow us to travel to places we otherwise wouldn’t visit –some geographic, but others interior and highly personal–and to understand the issues that divide us in new and more nuanced ways.”
thank you, he made Indianapolis a better place to live.
As always, so beautifully written. Bravo, Sheila! Bravo, Bryan, you will be missed by so many.
Thank you for such a lovely tribute to Bryan. He truly made this city a better place and raised the arts – both its performance and education – to a much higher level in.
Sadly, Bryan isn’t the only theater visionary we lost this week. Long-time Theater on the Square artistic director Ron Spencer also passed. Like Bryan, his mission was to broaden the conversation in the arts, especially as it pertains to marginalized communities.
Theater has lost two shining lights. It’s our job to make sure that light continues to shine.
Excellent tribute, Sheila! And thanks to those sharing about Brian and the Indy art community.
Sheila wrote, “…just people trying to reconcile their own contending beliefs.”
As I’ve encountered in daily life while observing the past four years as an experiment, we can almost replace the political spectrum with a personality spectrum or consciousness spectrum.
For instance, Brian’s use of art challenged the self-aware to seek out those subconscious fears and prejudices, which keep us stuck in old patterns. Who is open to this kind of personal reflection? And, when does it end?
Personally, exploring social activities comes down to those with open-minds and those with closed-minds. How many people in Indy or the surrounding rural communities would even attend one of Brian’s plays? Who would denigrate his works without ever watching a performance?
How many people are so shut down with fear that even if they did attend would completely miss the point?
If you listen to the far-right politicians talk about education, they ridicule the arts because they don’t understand its purpose in our culture. They don’t want the challenge of growth or discarding old ideas that don’t work for them as adults anymore.
Just some random thoughts…many of my high school mates are still there because they’ve not experienced life to the fullest. There is no introspection at all. Self-awareness is entirely lacking.
Is there any wonder they would adore a man with similar characteristics who speaks their language? 😉
I spent many wonderful evenings at the Phoenix when I lived in Indy. This is a tragic and consequential loss to the city.
Well said, Sheila. He will be missed.
Hoping the new year (for those who count the days as such) brings us peace and health — and a better country.
I have always believed that without the arts, we would lose much of what makes us uniquely human. I am a singer/songwriter and had the wonderful experience of hearing the Indianapolis Womens’ Chorus sing a song I composed called “The Small Difference”. The arts have the power to heal, inspire, and transform us. Bryan will be greatly missed. I can only hope that another good director with the same mission steps up to fill the void he is leaving.
Thank you Sheila. Bryan made a huge difference in the growth of our city. We have lost a really good person.