Ronan Marra will lead Storytelling Arts as longtime director Ellen Munds retires

As the executive director of Storytelling Arts of Indiana departs this summer, the founder of another Indianapolis arts organization will take the helm of the nonprofit that hosts more than 140 events a year.

Ronan Marra, who launched and led Storefront Theatre of Indianapolis, will assume leadership of Storytelling Arts as Ellen Munds retires June 30. The two are currently working together on the transition.Marra said he welcomed a new challenge.

"I'm used to founding something and then just pushing my vision for that organization from the beginning to the end. And I kind of wanted to change art forms. That's going to be the big learning curve for me," he said.

In 1987, Munds co-founded Stories Inc. with Nancy Barton and Bob Sander. She moved to Indianapolis in 1968 as a teen and attended North Central High School before going on to college and graduate school at Indiana University.

In 1996, Munds became director of the nonprofit, which eventually was rebranded to "Storytelling Arts of Indiana." The organization, especially known for its popular telling of ghost stories each Halloween, has grown to put on events that include local and national storytellers, series on topics like Hoosier history, and workshops, which offer feedback so people can hone their stories and make them more relatable.

Munds is particularly proud of the program “Hear Our Stories: The Life and Afterlife of Incarceration,” in which formerly incarcerated people offer their perspectives.

"This program really showed me that I had unconscious bias toward people who'd been in prison, and so I've gotten to know them and I really don't even care now that they did something that caused them to go to prison because they're human beings. They're not their crime," Munds said.

"Personally, it's been very powerful for me, but also, the audiences have really appreciated and learned so much, and I can tell that by the questions that they ask towards the end."

From Storefront Theatre to Storytelling Arts of Indiana

In 2017, Marra launched Storefront Theatre, which produces intimate, hard-hitting works by women and underrepresented playwrights in a black box-style space. Since 2022, it's been located at 56th Street and Keystone Avenue.

Before moving to Indianapolis with his wife and son in 2015, Marra co-founded Signal Ensemble Theatre in Chicago.

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Storefront's world premieres of work by Indiana writers and its Labs program for local writers are among Marra's favorite accomplishments at the theater, he said. Molly Dykstra and Melinda Arthur are currently operating Storefront, which is in the process of searching for a new artistic director.

Marra will bring his nonprofit and theater experience to Storytelling Arts, where he said he'll keep what's working while aiming to bring in new communities — and especially young people.

"If you think about people who are kids or teenagers between 2016 and now, it's been a heck of a time," Marra said. "I don't remember as much tumult in my youth growing up, and those people are starting to have their own stories, and I'm interested in seeing how we can mine those and who wants to share and who wants to hear them. I have the feeling that's going to permeate in programming throughout the season as I start to establish what that all really means."

Munds, 69, will remain a consultant with Storytelling Arts after her official retirement, which is part of a succession process the nonprofit started putting together around 2017, she said. She plans to join a knitting circle, reinvigorate her yoga practice and travel, among other activities, she said.

"It's always really hard for founding directors (to) leave organizations," Munds said. "It's a big step for those organizations in their life cycle, but I feel like this is going to work. I know it's going to work."

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Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Storytelling Arts of Indiana gets new director, longtime leader retires