For Immediate Release April 19, 2005

For More Information Contact: Diane Brown, 317-274-7711 habrown@iupui.edu

Theatre to Present IUPUI Professor's Play about Central State Patients

INDIANAPOLIS - In an interesting twist of fate, an IUPUI professor's original play, based on a true story of patients at the former Central State Hospital for the Mentally Ill, will premier on a stage in what was once the hospital's laundry building.

Curtains rise May 6 on Beckman Theatre's production of David Schanker's "Asylum." Showtime is 7:30 p.m. at the Central State Laundry Building , located west off Warman Avenue between Washington and Vermont streets. The production is the first play to be presented at the building recently converted to a theater.

"Asylum," tells the story of a psychologist's struggle to save a group of chronic schizophrenic patients before Central State closed its doors in the early 1990s.

"The play deals with issues of art, madness, and politics," Schanker said. "It tells the true story of the closing of Central State Hospital from the perspective of Dr. Jonathan Mangold, a psychologist/artist and Vietnam vet who attempted to keep Central State from closing by publicizing the artwork his patients had created in the art program he started there."

The art project had raised hopes that the hospital could be kept open as a place of refuge -- of asylum - for those patients who could not survive outside the institution.

Schanker teaches creative writing and film studies at IUPUI. He has authored two novels, "A Criminal Appeal," and "Natural Law."

"Asylum" is directed by Rita Kohn whose television documentary, "Long Journey Home 2" won a 2004 Emmy award.

The play will run May 6 through May 22. Show times are 7:30 p.m., Thursday through Saturday; and 2:30 p.m., Sundays. Regular performance tickets are $15 for students and seniors; and $20 for all others.

A preview performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. May 5. Preview tickets are $10.

For tickets, call the Beckmann Theatre at (317) 590-1454.

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