Epilogue Players & Footlight Theatre - 1847 & 1849 North Alabama Street

Year Built: 1897 &1924

Architecture Style: Colonial Revival / Mission Revival

Key Features:

• Curved Corner Tower
• Semi-Circle Parapet
• Balconies
  
• Stucco Walls
• Arched Lights Above Door
• Symmetrical Facade

These partner theaters have a long history as various theaters and other businesses. 1849 North Alabama Street was constructed in 1897, also known as Historic Hedback Corner, as a combination drugstore/barbershop, grocery store, laundromat and printing shop. The upper two floors were apartments.

Nextdoor, what is currently Footlight Musicals, was originally constructed for the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre. The building was built in 1924 and a theater program that was initiated at Herron (1914) relocated to a building on this site in 1926. By 1970, the Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre moved outside the city, but Footlight Musicals bought and continues to occupy the building, having done an exterior renovation to the original structure.

The Epilogue Players group was the creation of Bertha Starkus. The troupe now operates out of the Headback Theatre, but this was not always the case. Their first production was at the Children’s Museum. From there the group moved to the Command Playhouse at Fort Harrison at the invitation of the Commanding General. The group remained at the Fort for four years until the new command closed the theatre. This did not dampen their spirits and they kept presenting plays at various churches until 1984, when they were able to rent space from Hedback Community Theatre. With funds from their treasury, funding by Phil Hedback, plus a lot of hard work from the Epilogue members, this space, once just an “ugly duckling,” was transformed into one of the most charming little theatres in Indianapolis.

Read more about both buildings here: https://historicindianapolis.com/hi-mailbag-epilogue-theatre/

Visit the groups at their webpages here: http://epilogueplayers.com/ & http://footlite.org/