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First-time playwright Brandi Metzger has yet to see “Voices of the Avenue: A Musical” performed onstage for an audience, but she’s already experienced the rush of an in-progress production.
A table read of the story that revisits the dynamic entertainment scene of Indiana Avenue in the 1940s allowed Metzger to hear actors say lines she had previously only heard in her imagination.
“I was trying not to look like it, but I was vibrating with excitement the whole time,” said Metzger, a 2014 graduate of North Central High School. “That is the moment when it felt most real to me.”
“Voices of the Avenue” will debut May 31 at the District Theatre as the second of six Indiana Avenue-themed productions made possible by a $350,000 grant from the New York City-based Mellon Foundation. The money helped to establish Black Light Training & Development in 2022 to nurture the professional skills of Black playwrights, directors, actors and other jobs in live theater.
“It’s hard to get professional training at a reasonable cost, and then be able to use what you’ve learned,” said Tijideen Rowley, director of Black Light Training & Development.
Rowley, an alum of Indiana University and Southport High School, teaches acting classes as the founder of Actor’s Cafe. He said the three-year Mellon grant administered by the District Theatre strengthens the artistic infrastructure of central Indiana.
“The more trained artists we have, the better other people’s projects are,” Rowley said. “You’ll have a whole lot of trained actors, playwrights and techs for independent producers who want to produce plays.”
“Voices of the Avenue” is the fictional story of two sisters, Constance and Pearl, who appreciate their hometown in different ways. Constance is a reporter for a real newspaper, The Indianapolis Recorder, and Pearl is an entertainer at the Sunset Terrace, a real nightclub that once ruled Indiana Avenue.
Denver Ferguson, who opened the Sunset Terrace in 1938, is one of the characters in “Voices of the Avenue.” Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald were two music icons who made tour stops at the Sunset.
Metzger said she worked with her mentor, Rowley, to expand “Voices of the Avenue” from a play to a musical. The show features four original songs.
“I approached the lyrics as if I were writing a poem,” Metzger said, “because I’ve never written a song before.”
Jazz pianist Carl Hines and vocalist Sandy Lomax assisted with music production.
“Voices of the Avenue” follows the first Black Light production, “The Perfect Storm: Shining a Light on Indiana Avenue,” which was set in a record store in the 1960s.
Anila Akua, Elmetriss Fickling, Jasmine Hamer, Aleta Hodge and Symone O collaborated as playwrights for “The Perfect Storm.”
Metzger, a 2018 graduate of Oberlin College, said a book written by Hodge—”Indiana Avenue: Life and Musical Journey from 1915 to 2015”—was a valuable resource in the making of “Voices of the Avenue.”
Headed to Lithuania this summer to participate in a scriptwriting workshop, Metzger said she learned of the Black Light project through a social media post.
“I saw the post and took a look at the application,” she said. “It was pretty simple, and that really helped. I think if it had been a longer application, I might have put it off and never got back to it.”
In addition to hosting Black Light Training & Development, the District Theatre serves as the incubator for Indianapolis Black Theatre Company, a professional equity theater that debuted this month with a production of the play “Platanos y Collard Greens.”
‘Voices of the Avenue: A Musical’
- When: 7 p.m. May 31-June 1; 3 p.m. June 2
- Where: The District Theatre, 627 Massachusetts Ave.
- Tickets: $15
- Info: Visit indydistricttheatre.org.
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