The Playhouse Mural
~ by Brian Blair
Since 2023, Kathy Anderson dreamed of seeing the Brown County Playhouse’ s varied arts spotlighted on the outside of the building within a huge, blank area visible to people walking around Nashville.
Today, her desire stretches 72 feet by 28 feet in full color on the north side of the structure, facing Old Hickory Lane.
A digital theatrical scene created by rising Turkish-born artist Sitki Dogan, whose work appears nationwide, in Europe, and in the Middle East, features younger audience members watching a production at the intimate, 375-seat venue.
The crowd depiction, meant mostly to be a draw especially to prospective younger ticket buyers, was something of a team effort among board members and Dogan after the artist perused historical photos of the playhouse.
“ They’ re just meant to be a reference to young people today,” Dogan said, speaking by phone from his home near Palm Beach, Fla.
40 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2026
Photos from the Nov. 4 dedication day by Cindy Steele.
The barn details in the image represents the early playhouse stage site that opened in 1949 with tent-covered seating. The playhouse began as Indiana’ s first post-World War II summer stock theater, a collaboration between Indiana University Theater Director Lee Norvelle and local businessman A. Jack Rogers, launching with lowbudget shows to highlight the arts— all with the help of drama students seeking stage experience.
At the time, there might have been equal drama with building an audience in a hamlet not quite claiming 500 residents.
Rogers and Norvelle, plus nationally-known actors Kevin Kline and Jonathan Banks, who got their start at the playhouse, are depicted in framed photos within the mural to help highlight the facility’ s distinguished history.
“ I especially like the 3-D effect on the windows( of the building),” Dogan said.
“ He [ Dogan ] really is gifted,” said Anderson, a Playhouse supporter and former president.“ And he clearly had more [ mural ] experience than anyone else who submitted a proposal.”