Dee Dee Batteast
Instructor of Theatre
Biography:
Dee Dee Batteast is currently adjunct acting faculty for Ball State’s BFA program, where she teaches courses in beginning acting, audition, one-person show, and Shakespeare, as well as coaching Ball State’s professional showcases in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Dee Dee is a proud alumnus of Ball State’s undergraduate program (07’).
After the completion of her undergraduate career, Ms. Batteast relocated to New York where she lived and worked as an actress, social activist, and youth advocate. While in the city she volunteered at Girl Be Heard, a not-for-profit theatre company dedicated to social justice and issues affecting young women.
During her time as a tenure track faculty member at Ball State, Dee Dee was the faculty advisor of The Ethnic Theatre Alliance (ETA), a multi-cultural alliance group formed by Ball State’s theatre students, dedicated to providing all students, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, with the opportunity to connect their art with their activism.
Ms. Batteast is also a writer. Her self-produced one-woman show, NO AIDS, NO MAIDS, enjoyed a successful run at the Washington DC Fringe Festival, where it received the Capital Fringe Honors, Favorite Show of Fringe, Favorite Solo Performance, and Favorite Performance(s). She is looking forward to touring the performance again next summer.
Dee Dee received her MFA in acting from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she spent 3 years as a company member of PlayMakers Repertory Theatre. Some of her favorite roles at PlayMakers include 'Elizabeth' in IN THE NEXT ROOM, 'Ruth Younger in A RAISIN IN THE SUN, and Montjoy in HENRY VI". She has a great love of storytelling, and teaching other to tell stories. She is a writer and activist who believes in the power of art to change the world, and to change the conversations that shape the world.
May every artist in the room approach the work with empathy, gratitude and generosity.