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IUPUI AND CHILDREN'S MUSEUM CREATE CHILDREN'S THEATER AND DRAMA PARTNERSHIP

INDIANAPOLIS - The School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI and The Children's Museum of Indianapolis have pooled their artistic and financial resources to bring bigger and better children's theater to Indianapolis and Central Indiana.

Under the guidance of director Nancy Eddy, ONSTAGE, a newly formed partnership between the museum and university campus, will promote the growth of children's theater at both IUPUI and the Children's Museum.

Eddy, artistic manager of the museum's Lilly Theater, currently produces five plays each year for the museum theater, the only Indianapolis theater specially designed for children. Under the new partnership, Eddy will spend one-fourth of her time at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis where she will supervise all theater courses and expand programming in the Liberal Arts Communication Studies Department. The ONSTAGE director also anticipates the partnership with IUPUI will promote growth in the museum's intern program.

ONSTAGE is a "model" partnership, said Herman Saatkamp, dean of the School of Liberal arts at IUPUI.

"I am excited about sharing the talents of Nancy Eddy with our students and also sharing the academic resources of the university with the Children's Museum," Saatkamp said. "For Indianapolis, this blending of university and museum resources provides superior educational benefits for our students and children."

Eddy, who directs half of the Lilly children's theater productions each year, will also work with the Waldo M. and Grace C. Bonderman IUPUI National Youth Theater Playwriting Symposium.

The Bonderman Symposium is a national competition of children's playwrights. From hundreds of original plays submitted each year, judges chose four that are produced and performed before audiences, including local public school students who critique productions before final performances.

"People come from all over the United States to see the plays, including promoters, directors and playwrights," Eddy said. "It's a way of expanding scripts for young people."

ONSTAGE is the brainchild of Eddy and Dorothy Webb, former theater professional and director of the Bonderman Symposium. Webb retired last year.

Eddy, a native of Ohio, and a graduate of Purdue University, joined the museum in 1994. Prior to that she served as an artist-in-residence through the Indiana Arts Commission performing improvisation, pantomime, creative movement and other literature-based drama in schools.

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