All photos in this chapter are © by Joe Konz
The amphitheater in Garfield Park opened in 1922, when it was used for repertory actors presenting a new play each week.
Starlight Musicals, a well-known and longtime attraction in the Indianapolis community, had its first production, Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, at the park’s amphitheater in 1944. At that time, the attraction operated under the name Stars Under the Stars.
It would later become Indianapolis Theatre Association before finally changing to Starlight Musicals. Two years later, it moved performances between the State Fairgrounds and Butler University before making its permanent home in 1955 at the city-built Hilton U. Brown Theatre, 400 W. 49th St., very close to Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse. Starlight Musicals shuttered in 1993.
In 1936, the then-young Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra began a tradition of performing at the amphitheater, and much later, the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre staged annual summer performances there in the 1980s into the ’90s.
In 1936, the then-young Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra began a tradition of performing at the amphitheater, and much later, the Indianapolis Ballet Theatre staged annual summer performances there in the 1980s into the ’90s.
Today it is used for all forms of concerts and music festivals, Shakespearean theater and sundry special events. One such special event occurred in 2010 when the amphitheater and adjoining grounds were used for the Indianapolis celebration of the Mexican Independence Bicentennial and Revolution Centennial (a separate future chapter is devoted to this).
In 2003, the amphitheater was added to the National Register of Historic Places, according to the website of Friends of Garfield Park Inc.
The Indianapolis Brass Choir, as shown in the photo above, performed there on Aug. 22, 2013, as part of an Indy Parks Summer Concert series.
Familiar pop, rock, country and even notable local acts also have performed at the amphitheater, including the Guess Who, Dolly Parton, Chuck Mangione, Porter Wagoner, Soul Asylum, the Wright Brothers, Billy Strings, Houndmouth, Ann McWilliams, Cathy Morris and Carl Storie, just to name a few. Beatles tribute band American English appeared there at least twice, in 2010 and 2019. The amphitheater also has hosted the annual "Opera in the Park" for the past two years.
For many years, the venue was known simply as the Garfield Park Amphitheater. After a major facelift in 1997, it was renamed the MacAllister Center for the Performing Arts in honor of Indianapolis businessman P.E. MacAllister, a longtime friend of Garfield Park. And in the 2010s, the name was shortened to simply the MacAllister Amphitheater.
Theater via the works of the great bard William Shakespeare made use of the amphitheater for a summer series of free shows by two all-volunteer troupes at different time periods. The first, the Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival, debuted on July 9, 1981, with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The ISF had a run of 11 years, and two years after that the series folded altogether. Fifteen years later, in 2008, new Garfield Park-South Neighborhood residents Joe Cook and Bradley Jones revived the concept under the name Garfield Shakespeare Company. It continues today, although Cook and Jones left the troupe at the end of the 2016 season (another future chapter is devoted to GSC's productions in the park).
In the 1980s, the amphitheater also was the site of annual city-wide talent competitions and shows. Below are several more "views" of the amphitheater over the years and through the four seasons. Click on any photo to view a larger, sharper version.
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Familiar pop, rock, country and even notable local acts also have performed at the amphitheater, including the Guess Who, Dolly Parton, Chuck Mangione, Porter Wagoner, Soul Asylum, the Wright Brothers, Billy Strings, Houndmouth, Ann McWilliams, Cathy Morris and Carl Storie, just to name a few. Beatles tribute band American English appeared there at least twice, in 2010 and 2019. The amphitheater also has hosted the annual "Opera in the Park" for the past two years.
For many years, the venue was known simply as the Garfield Park Amphitheater. After a major facelift in 1997, it was renamed the MacAllister Center for the Performing Arts in honor of Indianapolis businessman P.E. MacAllister, a longtime friend of Garfield Park. And in the 2010s, the name was shortened to simply the MacAllister Amphitheater.
Theater via the works of the great bard William Shakespeare made use of the amphitheater for a summer series of free shows by two all-volunteer troupes at different time periods. The first, the Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival, debuted on July 9, 1981, with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The ISF had a run of 11 years, and two years after that the series folded altogether. Fifteen years later, in 2008, new Garfield Park-South Neighborhood residents Joe Cook and Bradley Jones revived the concept under the name Garfield Shakespeare Company. It continues today, although Cook and Jones left the troupe at the end of the 2016 season (another future chapter is devoted to GSC's productions in the park).
In the 1980s, the amphitheater also was the site of annual city-wide talent competitions and shows. Below are several more "views" of the amphitheater over the years and through the four seasons. Click on any photo to view a larger, sharper version.
-2.jpg)
Above and below: In October 2006, I used the green stage-loading doors of MacAllister Amphitheater as a backdrop for these publicity shots for an Indy rock band, After Dark. (You'll find two other frames from this shoot in an upcoming chapter). The band didn't last very long, unfortunately. In fact, I seem to recall one of the band members left the group not long after this shoot, rendering moot all the photos taken that day. But in December 2011, I shot two live performances of Band Wagon, whose lead vocalist was Lisa Kopczynski, the woman you see in these pictures. (There are blog posts here on each of those performances. Separate links to each of those are in the previous sentence, if you're interested.)
Next up, Chapter 21: Motion picture shorts in the park
Previously in the Garfield Park in Pictures series:
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