On the facade of its building at 2508 W. Michigan St., the Fonseca Theatre Company’s goal is spelled out for all to see — “We celebrate the uniqueness of cultures as well as illuminate their similarities.”
People of color make up nearly two thirds of the Near Westside, which is the conjunction of four neighborhoods, but until recently no venues existed that served those populations.
Since 2018, the theater’s three stages have showcased playwrights, actors and behind-the-scenes professionals that are people of color, LGBTQ+, disabled or belong to other communities that have been traditionally underrepresented. The theater also has presented performances on subjects that are culturally and historically important to Near Westside residents, like racial identity, the struggles faced by first-generation Americans and the role religion plays in our lives.
A home for art in the Near Westside
The company is the brainchild of Bryan Fonseca, a fixture of the Indianapolis theater scene who co-founded downtown’s Phoenix Theatre in 1983 and served as its producing director until 2018, when Fonseca established what would become the Fonseca Theatre Company.
Fonseca, along with more than 30 artists, wanted to learn about the African-American, Latino and Appalachian descent residents of the Near West neighborhood and tell their stories through plays, folktale performances and performance arts workshops for children.
Through funding from the Indy Arts Council and Lilly Endowment, the company performed at various spaces in the neighborhood, including a warehouse, local bars, parks and a nearby art residency called Indy Convergence.
Jordan Flores Schwartz was an intern working on her master’s degree when she met Fonseca. He soon became her mentor.
“He was very much of the mindset that theater is a tool, that theater is a means for community building, social justice, and for furthering some of these conversations,” Schwartz said. “And it was really incredible, as a young Latina artist, to find an older Latino mentor that had the same mindset about how to use theater and what theater was about.”
Fonseca and the rest of the company had support from the art world, but they found that there were no venues in the Near Westside dedicated to underrepresented communities.
“The year we were founded, of all the 30 professional shows happening in town, only one was written by a playwright of color that year,” Schwartz remembered. “So a big part of our mission was wanting to correct that and creating more opportunities for local artists of color, and to really just celebrate the incredible diversity of our city on stage.”
Fonseca secured funding to purchase a building to do just that, and, soon, the Fonseca Theatre Company had a permanent home along West Michigan Street, next to Haughville Park.
Just two shops down from the theatre’s front door is the entrance to River West Art Alley, an open-air art gallery located on the West Michigan Street corridor in the neighborhood of Haughville, Indianapolis. Credit: Enrique Saenz / Mirror Indy 
A mural dedicated to the community. Bryan Fonseca, the founder of FTC Community was known for his dedication to creating a space for art in Haughville, Indianapolis. Credit: Enrique Saenz / Mirror Indy 
Created in 2016 as part of the community event West Michigan Street Festival, a mural of butterflies is located at the far end of the River West Art Alley. Credit: Enrique Saenz/Mirror Indy
Transitioning from tragedy
The theater’s leadership found themselves navigating troubled waters less than two years after its opening.
The COVID-19 pandemic shuttered most of the world in early 2020 as millions of people fell ill to the disease. The company adjusted by holding performances on an outside stage.
Fonseca called for a hiatus in August, but soon contracted COVID-19 and died of complications from the disease.
Schwartz and the rest of the company members mourned the death of their fallen leader, but soon had to decide whether the Fonseca Theatre Company could go on without their founder.
“His ideas of community, culture, of connecting people, of breaking down those walls and building empathy — that was always at the heart of every show,” Schwartz said. “It was very obvious that everyone wanted the theater to continue, and wanted this work to continue and still be part of the landscape.”
Schwartz was selected as interim producing director, a position which later became permanent.
Continuing the work
As its producing director, Schwartz has a say in what plays will be performed at any of the theater’s three stages.
She said that scripts are picked with the intent of creating more opportunities for artists of color and to celebrate the city’s diversity on stage.
“It’s really important for up-and-coming artists and students to be able to see professionals that look like them and to have the opportunities to really learn and create art that is authentic to them, that reflects their experience and tells their story,” Schwartz said. “It’s important to have a space to do that without feeling like they have to meet a certain narrative or a certain criteria of what they have to represent.”
Once a play is selected, an intensive month-long process begins. Everyone involved in the production must meet and discuss the theme of the play and what needs to be done.
A view of the main stage at the Fonseca Theatre Company Feb. 2, 2024. Credit: Enrique Saenz / Mirror Indy 
Clothing for performances hangs backstage at the Fonseca Theatre Company Feb. 2, 2024. Credit: Enrique Saenz / Mirror Indy 
Backstage dressing room at the Fonseca Theatre Company Feb. 2, 2024. Credit: Enrique Saenz / Mirror Indy 
Cast members signed their name on a blackboard backstage at the Fonseca Theatre Company Feb. 2, 2024. Credit: Enrique Saenz / Mirror Indy
Stage hands must construct sets, costumes have to be obtained and actors, many of which have day jobs, rehearse up to 20 hours a week.
“These scripts are not the kind of shows our actors get a chance to do in town at a lot of the other theaters,” Schwartz said. “I hear a lot of feedback from our artists all the time, that this is the first time they got to play an Asian American role even though they’re an Asian American actor. They tell me that this is a really meaningful experience, and they just have a lot of fun with those parts.”
The theater’s next show will be “Blackademics,” a satirical play about race and class set at a small town restaurant. Performances will begin March 15.
Schwartz said the play unpacks some of the challenges of being a person of color in academia and the idea of consuming, literally in this case, the ideas and experiences of someone different.
“I hope people come away feeling less ‘othered,’ less isolated from a different group of people just because they look different or they speak a different language or they come from a different place,” Schwartz said. “I really want people to come away from our shows recognizing that shared humanity that we all have and realizing that maybe these things aren’t so foreign.”
The Fonseca Theatre Company holds performance arts workshops for adults and children. Credit: Fonseca Theatre Company 
Pictured from left to right: Lexes Rubio as Julia and Yolanda Valdivia as Patricia in “Dream Hou$e”, directed by Jordan Flores Schwartz, 2021. Credit: Fonseca Theatre Company 
Pictured from left to right: Chinyelu Mwaafrika, Chandra Lynch, Ms. Latrice Young, Aniqua Chapman and Josiah McCruiston during the performance for “Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too, August Wilson)”, directed by Jamaal McCray, 2021. Credit: Courtesy of Fonseca Theatre Company 
The Fonseca Theatre Company at 2508 W. Michigan St. on Feb. 2, 2024. Credit: Enrique Saenz/Mirror Indy
Performances and workshops
The Fonseca Theatre Company is located at 2508 W. Michigan St. For information about future performances or workshops available for adults or children, check out their website at fonsecatheatre.org.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @heyEnriqueSaenz.
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