Indianapolis, IN
Theater company to launch with story of trailblazing Black woman who played pro ball in Indianapolis – Indianapolis Business Journal
![Theater company to launch with story of trailblazing Black woman who played pro ball in Indianapolis – Indianapolis Business Journal](https://cdn.ibj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Focus_BenRose_070524.jpg)
“Toni Stone,” a play based on a woman who joined the roster of Negro League baseball’s Indianapolis Clowns in 1953, will serve as the debut production of the Indianapolis Black Theatre Co.
The professional Equity Theater (a designation of the Actors’ Equity Association, a union for live theater performers) aspires to create a space for Black artists to collaborate and thrive, founding Artistic Director Ben Rose said.
The group executed a “soft launch” this spring, when it co-produced and presented “Platanos y Collard Greens” in Anderson, Muncie and at the Indianapolis Black Theatre Co.’s home venue of The District Theatre, 627 Massachusetts Ave.
Rose told IBJ he’s assembled a dozen of the 15 members he plans to hire for the theater company. Rose’s work in the Indianapolis artistic community includes his founding of the Indy Filmmakers Bootcamp in 2010 and the co-founding of the Black-n-Brown Soulidarity Festival in 2021.
How does the structure of a theater company set it apart from other ways plays are presented?
Honestly, I don’t think there’s a model here locally for the type of theater company that I’m putting together. A lot of times, belonging to a theater company means you get to audition for roles first or you might get together once a year as a company.
But from what I’ve seen locally, there’s not a lot of intentionality put toward building the theater and the actors together. What I’m trying to do is build a support system for actors as Black creatives. I’m developing a theater that I hope is going to be a more sustainable model than just me being an artistic director who fundraises every year.
One of the things I’m pursuing is being able to represent our company members as an agency. A lot of people know this, but theater doesn’t make any money. It’s something our community sponsors at a corporate level and at a personal donation-giving level to make that happen. Very few people can actually make a living just doing theater.
Film, on the other hand, commercial projects, print work and things like that are all very lucrative things actors can do. … I’m bringing those into the theater space.
Does the company include positions beyond acting?
I’m in talks with a few writers in town, and I have two directors on board. I’m probably looking to pull maybe one or two more in because another arm of what we’re doing is creating original content.
I’m getting ready to announce a national Black playwriting contest. The winner of the contest gets a one-year development deal. We will actually give them a cash prize, and then we’ll also produce that play in our next season. The ultimate thought with that is, eventually we’ll be able to take things all the way from stage to screen.
It starts off with writers developing monologues for our actors, just to practice and to work with. But we might say, “Hey, that’s a really great monologue. Can we expand that into a two-person piece and then develop original content from there?”
We want to be known as a place that provides content for people outside Indiana, just like we want content that’s coming out of New York and coming out of California. We’re reversing the flow and making it so we’re licensable to the rest of the world.
What can you share about the upcoming “Toni Stone” production?
A friend of mine, Don Burrus, who I used to work with at the Phoenix Theatre, called me up and said, “Have you heard about this play, ‘Toni Stone’?” I said, “No.” He said, “She was the first female baseball player, and she’s Black, and she played for the Indianapolis Clowns.” I said, “What? How do I not know this history?” It’s kind of like not knowing about Major Taylor or somebody like that.
These people have a lot of recognition outside of here, but we’ve lost track of our own history. [Chicago-based playwright] Lydia Diamond wrote a play based loosely on a historical book about Toni Stone.
And there’s a reading scheduled?
We’re doing a reading on July 13, just to build partnerships with a lot of people. It may be kind of a non-traditional reading, because the first half of the play might have one Toni Stone and the second half of the play might have a different Toni Stone. It’s not meant to be the final product. It’s meant to be, “Let’s get this started. Let’s listen to it. Let’s have some discussion about it and how we can collaborate.” Then we’ll do the full production in late September.
Technically, was “Platanos y Collard Greens” the company’s first production?
I don’t really call it the first production, but it was a co-production that kind of fell into my lap. Teresa Reynolds, when she lived in New York, was a part of this production for several years. And I saw it when it came to IUPUI almost 30 years ago.
[Treva Bostic, founder of Cultured Urban Winery in Anderson] decided they wanted to produce this play, and they reached out to Ophelia Wellington from Freetown Village saying, “We need a director.” She reached out to me, and I said, “I know the perfect person in Teresa.” I also knew they needed support, and I was working out the details for being able to take our content to other Indiana cities that have high Black populations. I looked at it as an opportunity to kind of figure out how we could do this traveling show. It was great, even with bumps in the road we got through.
By this time next year, I’m hoping to have other cities—probably Fort Wayne and Evansville, maybe Michigan City and Gary—all mapped out. When we do our original content that premieres in Indianapolis, we can take it to some of these other cities with at least 15,000 Black residents that don’t get the kind of cultural input we do here.
Does economy of scale have something to do with the roadshow concept?
It just made sense to figure out, “How do we extend the life of a contract for an actor?” Right now, somebody might do six weeks: three weeks’ worth of rehearsal, three weeks’ worth of shows, and generously they might make $2,500. Most of the time, it’s maybe $1,000, and these are on professional stages. A lot of these folks are working for free.
So if I can take somebody from a six-week contract and extend that into a two-month contract, and we’re doing weekends and they’re making that money, I can turn that into more like an $8,000 contract. That becomes so much more sustainable.
Then we can stop people from saying, “Hey, I need to move to L.A. I need to move to Chicago,” just so they discover that it’s not sustainable there, either. And it’s more expensive. Why not stay here, where you have friends, family and resources? My goal is for people in my company to be making $15,000 to $20,000 a year as the base of their salary. Instead of the creative being the supplemental, they’re looking at other things to be their supplemental income beyond that.
Is it correct that Indianapolis Black Theatre Co. is independent of The District Theatre—but related?
District Theatre did the wonderful thing, headed up by Brian Payne while he was at [Central Indiana Community Foundation], of raising money to start this as a resident theater within the District [Theatre] but also give it its autonomy.
They’ve helped me with the structure, in terms of getting the not-for-profit together and establishing all of that. Basically, they helped hold our hand at the beginning and gave us budgeting for the next three years. I will be able to focus on the creative and infrastructure more than fundraising.
I have not seen this done in our city at this level, so it’s really a gift.
When does the funding expire?
It’s more about when the money runs out. They raised $1.5 million. They hired me a little late in their process, but it’s basically meant to be budgeted out over a two- to three-year period. When people hear $1.5 million, they may say, “That’s a lot of money.” … It seems like a lot of money, but we’re trying to set up the infrastructure in a way that we can be more self-sustainable when that money runs out.
It can be said that there’s presently a renaissance in Black theater in Indianapolis, including Naptown African American Theatre Collective, Urban Musical Theatre Urban & KaidyDid Productions, OnyxFest and the Black Light training initiative that’s related to your company. What do these organizations mean to the city?
Part of our mission with IBTC is to work with other Black cultural organizations. … I was just in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” with the Naptown African American Theatre Collective. I think it’s important for us all to play together.
I got my first professional acting gig through Freetown Village. I’ve known Deborah Asante [of Asante Art Institute] for a long time. For me, it’s very important that these groups operate as a fabric and a network of resources, more than thinking of it as competition.
A lot of people said, “Why do we need two Black theaters in town?” I say, “We don’t. We need four or five.” I think the city sees how important it is because, as we grow and we get more tourists in and as we do more events, people want culture and experiences they can’t get in other places. If somebody’s coming from New York, they already have New York. They want to come here to see what’s different about a city in the Midwest.
Why did you pursue this role, and were you motivated by pitfalls or roadblocks in your own career?
It’s taken me a long time to come full circle with my creative career, especially in Indianapolis. I’ve left twice. I moved down to Atlanta for about three years. I lived out in the L.A. area for about a year and a half.
Mostly I left because I couldn’t access the types of resources or the opportunities in Indianapolis that I wanted to as a Black actor. I was doing lots of work at the Phoenix Theatre, but I didn’t have a degree in theater. So Beef & Boards and League of Resident Theatres spaces like the Indiana Repertory Theatre weren’t accessible to me.
And to be really transparent, being a lighter-skinned Black man affected accessibility. When you have institutions looking to put on “Black plays,” they want a certain type of Black person to be in certain types of productions. I was just really frustrated.
I also was early in the film industry in Indianapolis, when we didn’t have networks. Cameras and editing equipment were still very expensive. There wasn’t a lot of crossover between the acting world and the cinematographers in town. I saw things transform in other cities, but not here. I felt like I didn’t have a support system for understanding the business, even in terms of whether you join Equity or don’t join Equity.
On the whole business side, it was hit or miss, and I was making a lot of mistakes. There were productions that people enjoyed and appreciated, but it made me broke trying to put those things on. When I saw this opportunity, I saw it as a way to be in the driver’s seat and make decisions in how this structure would be formed—to benefit Black creatives more than anything.•
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Indianapolis, IN
State government buildings get new signs at cost of $820,000 – Indianapolis Business Journal
![State government buildings get new signs at cost of $820,000 – Indianapolis Business Journal](https://cdn.ibj.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/indianaforthebold.jpg)
Three new signs declaring key state slogans are now up on several Indiana state government center buildings in downtown Indianapolis.
The total cost was about $820,000. Not all was taxpayer money.
Back in 2016, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. added three signs with former Gov. Mike Pence’s “A State That Works” catchphrase to two buildings: the west side of the IEDC’s office at 1 North Capital and the north and south sides of the Indiana Government Center North building. The signs included a gear with the state’s shape inside it.
They cost about $300,000 at the time — or nearly $393,000 in today’s dollars, according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator.
Those three signs have been removed and new signs have been created and replaced by Indiana-based Signworks.
The first two have the new IEDC slogan: Indiana For the Bold. The letters are nine feet tall and span more than 120 feet across.
“The signage, which is internally illuminated to fit the new brand, will better reflect the state and its focus on the future and creating a better tomorrow for Hoosiers,” IEDC Spokeswoman Erin Sweitzer said. “These signs are also a unique opportunity to share our brand and the state’s many competitive advantages to not only Indianapolis businesses, residents and students, but also to the more than 30 million people who visit our capital city each year.”
“The signs are in prime downtown locations that are frequently shown in photo and video coverage of the city by media outlets and content creators, creating countless opportunities to share Indiana’s bold brand with potential businesses, innovators and talent around the world,” she added.
The total cost to remove the three existing “A State That Works” signs and install the two new “Indiana For the Bold” signs – was roughly $580,000. The money came from the IEDC’s existing Business Promotion and Innovation funding, which is used to promote business investment and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
The third signage location, on the north side of the Indiana Government Center North building, was replaced with branding from the Indiana Destination Development Corporation (IDDC). It features the “IN Indiana” slogan.
Elaine Bedel, secretary and CEO of the IDDC, said the cost of that sign was $240,848. It was funded by the Indiana Destination Development Foundation and not state taxpayer dollars. The expenditure was unanimously approved by foundation board members on Feb. 20.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a not-for-profit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Indianapolis, IN
UKG eliminating 2,200 jobs, including some in Indianapolis – Inside INdiana Business
![UKG eliminating 2,200 jobs, including some in Indianapolis – Inside INdiana Business](https://cdn.insideindianabusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/UKG-Sign-Indianapolis-IBJ.jpg)
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Human-resources technology company UKG Inc. is eliminating about 2,200 jobs—14% of its global workforce—including an unknown number in Indianapolis.
UKG, or Ultimate Kronos Group, which has more than 15,000 global employees, offers a software platform for handling payroll, timekeeping, employee scheduling and other human-resources functions. The company has dual headquarters in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Weston, Florida, and its locations include a downtown Indianapolis office in the PNC Center at 101 W. Washington St.
A UKG spokesperson declined to say how many Indianapolis jobs were eliminated or how many people total work at the office.
In an email sent to UKG employees Wednesday and shared with IBJ by the company, UKG CEO Chris Todd said the company is making “a number of organizational changes that will allow us to aggressively focus on critical areas of growth and to provide flexibility to actively invest in important new areas. These changes mean we have made the difficult decision to say goodbye to [about] 14% of our colleagues.”
Todd wrote that the company had originally intended to notify employees of the layoffs next week, but decided to make the announcement early because of “news and speculation” that had begun circulating within the company.
The email also said that the cuts are taking place primarily in the United States and across all departments.
As of Friday, numerous people had announced on the job networking site LinkedIn that they had lost their Indianapolis-based UKG jobs. Contacted by IBJ via that platform, several said they were not sure how many others had been let go locally.
The layoffs are a shift from two years ago, when UKG was approved for up to $2.5 million in state tax incentives based on the company’s local hiring plans. At that time, UKG had more than 300 Indianapolis employees, and it said it planned to hire an additional 200 people by the end of 2024.
According to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s transparency portal, UKG was approved in April 2022 for up to $2.3 million in tax credits and $200,000 in conditional training grants. The incentives are performance-based, meaning that the company was only eligible to claim the money after met job commitments.
The transparency portal shows that UKG has claimed only $81,535 in tax credits to date, and it has claimed none of the training grants.
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Indianapolis, IN
TRENDING: The Indianapolis Colts’ Former 3rd-Rounder Is Looking To Win A Starting Job After Missing Last Season – Gridiron Heroics
![TRENDING: The Indianapolis Colts’ Former 3rd-Rounder Is Looking To Win A Starting Job After Missing Last Season – Gridiron Heroics](https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/USATSI_22078807_168400517_lowres-scaled-e1710342778129.jpg)
The Indianapolis Colts tight end room had the 9th most receiving yards in the NFL last season. Their top three tight ends were Kylen Granson, Will Mallory, and Mo Alie-Cox. Granson had 30 receptions for 368 yards (1 TD), Mallory had 18 receptions for 207 yards, and Alie-Cox had 13 receptions for 161 yards (3 TDS).
The Colts chose not to sign or draft a TE this offseason. One reason for this decision could be their confidence in their former 3rd-round pick, who missed all of 2023.
The Indianapolis Colts’ former 3rd-round pick fully recovered from an injury that caused him to miss all of 2023
After having a solid rookie season, Jelani Woods suffered a hamstring injury during voluntary workouts that caused him to miss most of training camp and the entire 2023 season. Woods fully recovered from the injury and is feeling better.
“I feel better (than in 2022), really, because I’m starting to know my body really well and creating a routine daily to just keep building myself,” Woods said. “I feel like I’m in a good start now so I’m just trying to keep it going and take it one day at a time really, for the most part.”
Now that Woods is fully healthy, he will compete for the TE1 spot. He is confident in his skill set and understands he is in a pivotal competition.
“I know what I can do, I know how (much) I can help the offense,” Woods said. “I know I can be a pivotal point in the offense and I’m just trying to show that and earn the respect back, earn my spot back. Just pretty much trying to do whatever I can to show them Jelani, he’s here.”
He will compete against three players for the starting TE job.
Player #1
![TRENDING: The Indianapolis Colts' Former 3rd-Rounder Is Looking to Win a Starting Job After Missing Last Season 2 Indianapolis Colts, Kylen Granson](https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841.webp%201920w,https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841-300x247.webp%20300w,https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841-1024x843.webp%201024w,https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841-768x632.webp%20768w,https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841-1536x1265.webp%201536w,https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841-150x124.webp%20150w,https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841-450x371.webp%20450w,https://gridironheroics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/USATSI_22027841-1200x988.webp%201200w)
The first player competing is Kylen Granson. Granson, a 4th-round pick from 2021, enters his fourth year in the league. He finished first in receptions, targets, yards, and snaps among TEs on the team in 2023.
He will be an unrestricted free agent after the conclusion of the 2024 season.
Player #2
The second player competing is Mo Alie-Cox. Alie-Cox, who primarily plays as a run blocker, enters his eighth year in the league. He finished third in receptions, targets, and yards, second in snaps, and first in receiving touchdowns among TEs on the team.
He will also be an unrestricted free agent after the season’s end, but many view him as a player who could get cut during roster cuts.
Player #3
The third player competing is Will Mallory. Mallory, a fifth-round pick from 2023, enters his second year in the league. He finished second in receptions, targets, and yards and fourth in snaps among TEs on the team.
Who wins the starting TE job?
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