Straight Jackets to Dust Jackets: A Look Between the Pages of An Evening With The Authors*

INDIANAPOLIS -- It's the first Tuesday of the month, and inside of The White Rabbit Cabaret in Fountain Square, a crowd mingles in the dimmed lights, ordering drinks and catching up with friends. Backstage, performers go over their notes, primp their costumes and touch up their makeup.

For the last 14 months, "An Evening With The Authors*" has entertained guests with its send up of an NPR show, hosted by “Dana Glass,” the ficticious angsty cousin of Ira Glass. Dana invites a number of noted and distinguished (albeit fake) authors to share from their latest books.

A regular performer, Stephen Vincent Giles, says "An Evening With The Authors*" takes him out of his creative comfort zone, forcing him to create new characters and scenarios. He, along with the other performers, then take that new material, or new character, and integrate it in to their acts and events elsewhere around Indianapolis. Giles says he is also pursuing opportunities to create his own show, something he wouldn't have had the courage to do without "An Evening With The Authors*."