Butler Theatre Professional Connections

Butler University is lucky to be located in Indianapolis, Indiana, which has a vibrant theatre and arts scene. Butler Theatre students connect regularly throughout the year with Indianapolis’s professional, Equity theatre companies: the Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT), Indiana’s largest, fully professional regional theatre, the Phoenix Theatre,  which focuses on issue-oriented contemporary work, the Indianapolis Shakespeare Company (Indy Shakes), which focuses on Shakespeare as well as contemporary offerings, the Naptown African American Theatre Collective (NAATC), which focuses on African American plays, American Lives Theatre, which focuses on contemporary work, and many more. Butler Theatre students, faculty, and staff attend performances at thetheatres each semester, and many of our Theatre faculty work at these theatres. The production visits are tied to our classes: we discuss and write about the professional productions we see in our acting, directing, voice, movement, design, and theory courses.
Additional benefits of Butler Theatre’s connections to local, professional theatres:

• Our Idea of Theatre class visits theatre artists and institutions across the city to see how professionals are using their theatre degrees in expected ways (artistic directors, designers, technicians, actors), in related ways (jobs in development, education, and management at professional theatres) , and in some unexpected ways (as actors/designers/educators in the museum realm, as artists who use theatre techniques to connect with persons with disabilities, as community builders, and much more)
• Opportunities to intern  at the theatres during the school year and in the summers. Areas of internships include dramaturgy, stage management, design, marketing, company management, and more (see our internship page)
• Opportunities to perform: many Theatre Majors have made their professional debuts at the IRT, Indy Shakes, and the Phoenix over the years
• Opportunities to work with guest artists on campus Many local artists work with us at Butler Theatre in the classroom and in ourproductions providing students with additional insights and connections
• Plus, we also connect our students with theatre artists across the country and around the globe https://www.butler.edu/jordan-arts/undergraduate-programs/theatre/visiting-artists/