IRT To Present Free Public Screening Of “Finding Home,” Followed by WFYI Broadcast

Last fall, Hoosier heroes Abraham Lincoln, Hoagy Carmichael, and Eli Lilly shared a stage, brought to life by the pens of local literary legends past and present, from Kurt Vonnegut to Dan Wakefield. Sixty Hoosier vignettes from nearly 30 Hoosier writers, poets, journalists, and historians graced the Indiana Repertory Theatre Upperstage in the 2016 bicentennial production Finding Home: Indiana at 200.

Thanks to a Lilly Endowment grant, a WFYI film crew was able to film the fall 2016 performance for the first time in the IRT’s 46-year history, and is presenting the bicentennial bash in a special free public screening at the IRT on Wednesday, December 6 at 7 p.m.

The production spotlights not only the contributions of local writers, but Hoosier singer-songwriter Tim Grimm and his family, who lend their vocals and guitars to tunes such as “Sweet Corn Swing,” “The Ballad of William Henry Harrison,” and “Indy 500.”

But if you’ve already seen the play, you can take a pass, right?

Not so fast, says IRT Marketing Manager Carolyne Holcomb.

Even those who’ve seen either the “Blue” or “Gold” version of the two-part production will want to tune in—Holcomb says the screening will feature work from both performances, condensed into a single film.

Each of the “Blue” and “Gold” productions had a running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes, with 70 percent new material in each version.

“Both productions were about five hours combined,” Holcomb says. “The broadcast will be 1 hour and 50 minutes—so a considerable amount of condensing took place to get it broadcast-ready.”

So which scenes made the cut? All will be revealed Wednesday, but fingers crossed that Mark Goetzinger’s role as a rascally judge in Dan Carpenter’s “young Abe Lincoln” sketch, and David Alan Anderson’s turn as a high school classmate of Ryan White in Sarah Layden’s much-lauded Ryan White scene, make an appearance..

Can’t make tomorrow night’s screening? Catch Finding Home on WFYI December 11 at 8 p.m. The IRT will also provide one copy of the production to each public library system in Indiana, for a total of nearly 450 DVDs.

The IRT (140 W. Washington St., OneAmerica Mainstage) will host a free public screening of Finding Home: Indiana at 200 Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. Tickets are complimentary, but guests must RSVP. The performance will be broadcast on WFYI Monday, Dec. 11 at 8 p.m.