Who We Are

Mission Statement

The Department of Theatre and Dance fosters compassionate, inclusive, and empathetic human beings. We challenge our students to become exceptional artists through the exploration of the dynamic relationship between art and the human experience.

To fulfill our mission, we are guided by seven Core Values, which reflect the student’s journey within our department.

Character: We practice deliberate and active empathy, kindness, and respect.
Inclusivity: We pursue radical inclusion of all voices, backgrounds, and perspectives, especially those marginalized by history.
Collaboration: We foster an environment of collaboration in all things artistic, academic, and interpersonal. 
Critical Thinking: We emphasize a broad-minded liberal-arts mentality and the connection of ideas across disciplines and experiences.
Empowerment: We equip our students with a spirit of self-direction and independent vision for their art and their lives.
Innovation: We inspire our students to break new ground in their artistic and educational journeys.
Professional Excellence: We instill in our students the work ethic and discipline-specific skills, experiences, and connections necessary to succeed in the professional world.

The Theatre and Dance faculty and staff are committed to putting our values into action. In the summer of 2020, after the murder of George Floyd in Summer 2020 we adopted the following statement and action plan, which we have continued to execute and update:

Members of the Ball State University Department of Theatre and Dance family have listened to our black students, alumni, colleagues, and supporters about the pain, struggle, and frustration they have endured in this country due to systemic racism. We have researched and absorbed current and historical information that will allow us to be better allies and more actively anti-racist. We have watched and participated in many of the passionate protests happening across the country. Through this process, we have mobilized to create aggressive and tangible steps to be better story-tellers, artists, and human beings.

To this end, the Department has formulated a series of six action steps that will guide us as we continue the hard work of making a lasting and permanent change in how we do what we do. While our current Strategic Plan addresses many of the issues noted below in terms of increasing underserved voices in our student body, our curriculum, and our production season, we feel that increased student involvement and a renewed focus on making these action steps more visible to our external audiences and within the Department is vital to holding us accountable in becoming a program that is actively anti-racist and that advocates for social justice for all marginalized groups and voices.

1. Each year, the Department Production Committee formulates a production season of ten theatre and dance offerings with a commitment that at least 60% of those offerings be authored by BIPOC, non-binary, gender non-conforming, LGBTQ, and female voices.
2. The Department Curriculum Committee created new courses that focus on the contributions of previously marginalized voices, populations, and cultures. These courses were integrated into the Departmental Core Curriculum starting in the fall of 2021.
3. The Department DEIAB Committee continues to work closely with the Department Chair to help facilitate two action steps: (1) The creation of training sessions on anti-racism for all faculty and staff within Theatre and Dance; (2) The engagement in a series of conversations with our students of color led DEIAB guest artists. The DEIAB Committee also works in close collaboration with the Department’s Student Advisory Group to develop appropriate and clear action plans based on the faculty/student discussions.
4. Our Department Recruitment and Marketing Committee has created a series of online and in-person master classes to help prospective students prepare for auditions and interviews. These classes are primarily targeted toward students of color from high schools who lack sufficient instruction in theatre or dance. Additionally, students from our Theatre Education program receive mentorship related to these master classes so that they may be better educated as to how to prepare their future students for auditions and interviews in theatre and dance.
5. Our Ball State Theatre and Dance Alumni Society created a fund to support students, with preference given to students of color who are either currently enrolled in the Department of Theatre and Dance or are auditioning for the Department. This fund provides emergency aid for those students who are struggling to make ends meet and is at the forefront of our One Ball State Day campaign each year, in the hopes of creating both a permanent endowment and a flexible fund to be used whenever needed. We also look at current board membership to ensure that our representation is inclusive across all areas.
6. The Departmental Leadership Team created a Theatre and Dance Student Advisory group that includes representation from all of our student organizations. The Student Advisory Group partners both with the Department’s Recruitment and Marketing Committee and the Department’s Option Coordinators to fulfill two distinct objectives: (1) improve our efforts in the area of recruitment of students of color; (2) increase departmental retention rates by creating a more robust and established mentorship program to help all students adjust to the artistic and academic rigors of the collegiate environment.