New Hyperion Players to Stage First Show, ‘Barefoot in the Park’

Finding venues for theatrical productions has been the second greatest challenge for Ian Hauer’s newly created theater company, Hyperion Players, which brings its first show in its pilot season to stage this week.

Finding rehearsal venues has been less difficult, “but part of the reason, we’re doing plays with smaller casts … so we can rehearse in a basement or living room,” said the 32-year-old Noblesville resident, the director of Neil Simon’s comedy, “Barefoot in the Park.” The show will be on stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at The Switch Theatre in Ji-Eun Lee Music Academy in Fishers. Tickets are still available.

Audiences may be familiar with this story, perhaps through the 1967 film adaptation starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, Hauer said.

The setting is simple, but the script features countless instances of Simon’s famous wit, he said. Newlyweds, after a six-day honeymoon, receive a surprise visit from a loopy mother-in-law and decide to play matchmaker during a dinner with their neighbor, where everything that can go wrong does.

“For the inaugural play of our pilot season, we wanted to feature a classic comedy, something light and witty that every audience member could enjoy,” said Hauer, who with his childhood friend, Adam Fike, created the theatrical group. “Of course, much of the humor comes from the play’s relatability. Though the plot is colorful and the characters larger than life, the play captures the highs, lows, mess and magic of love “and stuffs them into an efficiency apartment,” Hauer said.

“We wanted to launch our pilot season with an accessible comedy that had a good script, name recognition and a small cast,” Hauer said. “We felt ‘Barefoot’ was an excellent choice, and balances out our next show, ‘God of Carnage,’ which is lesser-known and a bit darker.”

The new theater company is “going well.”

Although finding “decent places” to perform, especially in Noblesville and Fishers, is tough. He knows Hyperion is not the only theater bouncing around at the moment, trying to find “the sweet spot of affordability, availability and technical capability.”

While he’s found three different locations for his pilot season, he’s on the lookout for a long-term home, as are other local theater groups. Without a home, Hyperion, as do other theaters, require load-in sets that are built offsite and brought in for the show run. For now, this means “we try to keep it simple while still building something that looks good,” Hauer said.

“For ‘Barefoot in the Park,’ we’re constructing a lot of the individual elements and wall sections offsite, and we’ll put those together at load-in. Then we’ll work on set decoration.” There are quite a few folks involved who also help out with transportation and set building.

Tickets for the first show in the pilot season are $12, which is $2 more per ticket than the $10 tickets for Hyperion Players’ inaugural show, “The Glass Menagerie,” by Tennessee Williams, in February. But the ticket price is still well below other local community theaters.

Most of the theater’s funding comes from individual donors. There are a couple of sponsors for the first production, plus a grant from the Indiana Arts Commission to put toward Hauer’s original play in the spring. “Call Me Sister” will be on stage in June 2023 at The Ivy Tech Auditorium in Noblesville.

For Hyperion’s first season, they sought a comedy, a drama and an original script and look for future seasons to have roughly the same balance.

For Hyperion’s second season, Hauer has put out a callout for outside directors. “I’m pleased to say we received more applications than we have slots,” he said.

A script-selection committee will meet in late October to select the slate, to be presented to Hyperion Players’ board of directors in January and announced in April.

The largest donors have come from within. Hauer said Hyperion’s founding members agreed to personally fund the theater through the first three seasons. Plus, the theater had a successful fundraiser in the spring and several donors contributed at levels “higher than we expected for our first season,” he said. Hauer hopes to bring sponsors on board once they start doing shows more regularly.

The greatest challenge is balancing long-term ambitions against short-term needs. “How do you stand up a nonprofit that can last, while not neglecting what’s right in front of you?” One of the easiest parts has been “generating enthusiasm for what we’re doing,” Hauer said. “Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to is very excited about Hyperion. That’s encouraging.”

Hauer said much of his time is spent networking, “getting our name out there and raising funds.”

Starting a nonprofit is not easy, he said. “On a more serious note, I think I knew but didn’t fully realize how important it is to build relationships, to listen and to be reliable. I’ve also been reminded how important it is to have multiple voices in the room, not always agreeing, but dedicated to a common vision.”

Hauer believes that the growth of Noblesville (and nearby Fishers, Cicero and other communities that he hopes the theater will serve) has created space for more than one performing arts organizations. “Because we see a lot of the same artists moving between organizations, the arena can feel smaller than it is, but I believe there is a large enough population to attend, support and sustain multiple groups.”

He is thrilled that the arts in Noblesville are expanding. “Live theater is so important for the artists, for the audience and for the community.”

Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.