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Ronan Marra knows how to spin a funny yarn for friends and associates, but he’s never aspired to transfix large crowds with his tales, a la Mark Twain or Spalding Gray. This blank spot in his personal skill set wasn’t a concern until this June, when he became executive director of the not-for-profit Storytelling Arts of Indiana.
“I can tell a good story on paper, but I’ve never really done it onstage,” said Marra, who, before taking his latest gig, served as co-artistic director at Chicago’s Signal Ensemble Theatre, and for the last eight years as founder and artistic director of the Storefront Theatre of Indianapolis. “But I plan to. What’s nice is that Storytelling has lots of opportunities for people that don’t have any experience with this sort of thing to get involved, and I absolutely intend to do that.”
Storytelling Arts of Indiana debuted in 1987 and hosts approximately 140 events each year. The lineup includes Story Slams, where amateur yarn-spinners can hone their skills during open-microphone events; its flagship Signature Stories series, featuring internationally famous storytellers; and Spine-Tingling Tales, a high-profile Halloween event that will take place Oct. 28-29 at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre.
Marra’s arrival marks the first time in the organization’s 37-year history that it hasn’t been overseen by one of its co-founders: Ellen Munds, Nancy Barton and Bob Sander. Munds took charge in 1996 and ran an extraordinarily tight (and well-organized) ship during her tenure. So well-organized, in fact, that planning to find her successor began back in 2017 and was funded with donations from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation, Efroymson Family Fund, Lilly Endowment and the Indianapolis Foundation.
“I wasn’t involved in his selection process,” which was overseen by SAI board president Eric McKeown, said Munds. But she said Marra is “a great choice.”
Munds remained on staff for three months after Marra signed on in order to show him the ropes, and will help out for an additional nine months as a consultant.
“He has relationships with all the funders in town, and he knows the central Indiana arts community well, so those are two very good things,” she said. “He didn’t know anything about storytelling, but I felt like I could teach him that, so it didn’t worry me. I was very pleased.”
Marra earned his new job thanks in part to his mastery of a diverse grab bag of talents that, for most arts aficionados and practitioners, typically mix about as well as vinegar and oil. He knows pretty much everybody in the local cultural community, but he’s also wired into the local philanthropic scene and understands how to write grant proposals and administer an arts organization. And he can also schmooze with potential donors.
“It’s all about relationships,” Munds said. “Relationships with the storytellers and the local and national communities. Relationships with the volunteers, with funders and board members.”
Marra has worked up a roster of new ideas he’d like to introduce at SAI, along with another list of items he wants to keep more or less as-is. Item No. 1 on his to-do list is nurturing a cadre of young Hoosier storytellers.
“I would like to hire locally as much as possible, but there aren’t a ton of local storytellers,” he said. “That might require starting more training programs. That’s one big thing I want to do.”
He particularly wants to hear the experiences of tweens, teens and twentysomethings who have come of age since 2016 and who can share their views on everything from the recent national election cycles to what COVID did to their lives.
“I feel like there’s so many people who have stories like this but don’t have the opportunity to tell them,” Marra said. “Maybe, for whatever reason, they don’t feel like they have the agency to tell them.”
He’d also like to start a Storytelling Arts of Indiana podcast.
“I still want people to see our stories onstage, but I would love a podcast that can offer more background to those stories,” Marra said. “Just to get maybe a half hour of conversation with the specific storyteller.”
One thing he doesn’t plan to change much is the nuts and bolts of how the organization is managed. For example, although for years his own Storefront Theatre of Indianapolis operated (true to its name) out of a converted storefront sandwiched between a consignment store and a barbershop just off Keystone Avenue near Broad Ripple, he has no desire to re-create that situation.
Instead, he wants to keep Storytelling’s current, carefully cultivated situation. He’s the only full-time employee, the group’s offices sit inside the Indiana Historical Society, and many of its shows take place in the IHS’ 290-seat Frank and Katrina Basile Theater.
“I had my own place with my company in Chicago, plus with Storefront,” Marra said. “I don’t ever want to do that again. There’s so many advantages with being at the IHS. The parking lot is free, and it’s right outside the theater door, so it’s easy to access. It’s just too good of a deal.”
While he’s the only full-timer, a small group of contract staffers serves as bookkeeper, marketing and social media manager, grant writer, and volunteer and program coordinator.
“It’s great because I didn’t have all that stuff at Storefront,” Marra said.
Another item that’s been a welcome change is Storytelling’s solid financial footing. The organization has even built up a small, but not insignificant, endowment that contributes about $18,000 each year to the group’s budget of roughly $250,000. The endowment’s board, which is separate from the organization’s board, is working to greatly expand the endowment with fresh donations.
“I don’t know many organizations of our size that have something like this,” Marra said. “Ellen’s forgotten more about fundraising than most people will ever know. So for me, the challenge is to take something that’s already humming along and keep it humming along. Maybe even make it a little bit better.”•
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