It was founded by Bryan D. Fonseca in 1983, initially to perform the three-part (three evening) science fiction play, "Warp!". Both venues are housed along with administrative offices in a renovated 1907 church where Jim Jones once preached, a fact that was brought into their production of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". The Phoenix Theatre is a member of the National New Play Network and the League of Indianapolis Theatres, and is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as local corporate and foundation funders and more than 400 individual donors.