More Ball State Theater for 2026-27

 2026-2027 Season | Ball State University for the full list.

Let us see if I can get to the ones that interest me:

Tartuffe

By Jean-Baptiste Molière, adapted by Richard Wilbur
Directed by Karen Kessler and Kathy Logelin

February 12-13 and 17-20 at 7:30 p.m. | February 14 and 20-21 at 2:30 p.m. | Performing Arts Center - Proscenium Theatre

Sharp, witty, and bitingly relevant, Tartuffe is a masterclass in comedic satire. When the wealthy Orgon falls under the spell of Tartuffe—a sanctimonious fraud posing as a man of great piety—his entire household is thrown into chaos.

As Tartuffe schemes to marry Orgon’s daughter, seduce his wife, and seize control of the family fortune, the rest of the household races to expose the truth. What follows is a fast-moving comedy of deception, hypocrisy, and willful blindness. With razor-sharp language and enduring insight, Tartuffe reveals the dangers of believing what we want to believe—even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

TARTUFFE (WILBUR) is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Dramatists Play Service. www.concordtheatricals.com

Holmes is Where the Heart Is

By David Taylor Little
Directed by Veronica Santoyo

October 1-4 and 6-8 at 7:30 p.m. | October 3 at 2:30 p.m. | Arts and Journalism Building, Room 225

In postwar London, a sharp-witted private investigator finds herself haunted by voices from her favorite Sherlock Holmes radio broadcasts—clues that may be guiding her toward the truth… or pulling her further from it. As she and her sister race to solve a high-stakes mystery, they must navigate a world that doubts women detectives at every turn. But when instinct, intellect, and imagination collide, the line between inspiration and obsession begins to blur. Suspenseful, witty, and full of intrigue, Holmes Is Where the Heart Is is a clever homage to classic detective stories—reimagined through a fresh and fiercely determined lens. 

Fall Short Play Series
The Fall Short Play Series features multiple short plays performed in repertory directed by junior-level students. 

• Apocalypse Road Trip
  By Wren Aubrey Latham
  Directed by Mason Luellen
  October 20-25 at 7:30 p.m.  | Art and Journalism Building, Room 225
  
  When the world ends, Mitchy and Quinn hit the road in a battered 2011 Jeep Wrangler they call ‘The Big Lebowski.’ With humor, heart, and plenty of detours, their journey through a ruined landscape becomes a search for meaning, connection, and a reason to keep going—even at the end of everything. 

• The Proposal
  By Anton Chekhov, Julius West
  Directed by Tyler Bennett
  October 20-25 at 7:30 p.m. | Art and Journalism Building, Room 225
  
  A marriage proposal goes wildly off the rails when a nervous young farmer and his intended bride spiral into a series of ridiculous arguments over land, pride, and family honor. Tempers flare, nerves fray, and the engagement teeters—yet somehow, love (or stubbornness) wins out. Fast, sharp, and delightfully absurd, The Proposal is a comic classic about how romance and conflict often arrive hand in hand. 

 

sch 

  

6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 6

[I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. Consider this post as more of an aborted memoir. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. Continued from 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 5 sch 8/15/2026]  

 The first woman I lived with was T2. We spent a year living together during which time the relationship became an engagement, soured, and came to an end. I went into a partnership of which she disapproved (and her disapproval was proven by 1997), and which became a major burden on us. I worked way too many hours computerizing the practice. Then she had the miscarriage.

 We had announced our engagement and her pregnancy to my family at Thanksgiving. The miscarriage happened on Christmas Eve, My reaction rankled her. I thought it was a repeat of TJ's last miscarriage, that T2 did not come close to death I found a relief. She mourned the loss of the child. I thought it was another pain for me to endure. That I preferred her to the child was never well communicated by me.

As I wrote, the situation soured. We had a house we rented. We had a rather nasty fight one day. I moved upstairs as I did not trust her to pay the remainder of the lease. My paranoia reinforced my emotional barricades. We left the house on good terms, but not nearly as good as when we entered. 

We would date for the remainder of her stay in Anderson. We did try for another pregnancy, but sex under pressure never promoted a good performance out of me. It was too much of what sex should never be - work. I dated Judy M for the first time during this period and the Rose of Spiceland, and I saw a bit of JH. She almost got a second marriage proposal from me during one night in Indianapolis. When she announced her leaving Anderson first, I kept my mouth shut.

I asked T2 for some help after my incarceration. She agreed and then stopped answering my calls. Here is one friend my legal troubles cost me.

I must mention Judy M. If for no other reason than a public apology. She has been in and out of my life since 1996. She was the other woman who proposed I marry her. She would get annoyed with me, then she would call me. I liked her company, but ti was another case where there was no approval of me by her children. Those two I never met until after I got married. I came close to calling her in 2009, I did not because I would have to admit my marriage was at an end. She sought happiness so desperately, sometimes inappropriately, that we did fit well together. I trusted her as much as I did JH. I hope she takes care of herself.

Did I mention the return of LAH? She haunted the fringes now. Sporadically a friend, but no longer a romantic interest.

 Linda lasted the summer of 1995, but she cut deeply. Who would think such a short time would have such an impact? Older than I was, and with a broad, warm smile. I lost myself in that smile. How e met was unorthodox even by my standards.

I was working on Sunday evening at the office. Without any expectations of seeing another human being, I wore an old T-shirt and ratty jeans. I was in a foul mood when a friend called me. He was a bouncer at Elliott's (a nightclub/restaurant once located at the southwest corner of Main and 7th Streets in Anderson) and told me I needed to get down there to meet a woman. A drink sounded good, my curiosity was piqued. My mood did not improve when he introduced me to this short, very drunk brunette, wearing a blue dress. When she spoke she had an alto, not quite as husky as Marlene Dietrich's. She told me about her boyfriend dropping her and moving off to Illinois. She asked me if I liked sex, but using a more direct Anglo-Saxon word. The way she said it was too damn cute. My bad mood ended. I said I did and asked if she wanted to leave. No, she was with her cousin and could not leave. She kept on amusing me. Her question about sex was repeated a few more times. She used my full name, and I never thought Samuel sounded so good. I asked her to take a walk outside to get away from the club's noise. We went down to the Riverwalk, stopping at the pavillion below the jail. We kissed, we petted, and then I gave her a very good tongue lashing. My name came from her through gritted teeth asking me to stop. I did. We giggled a bit, she smoothed down her skirt, and as we walked back to Elliott's I put her blue thong in my pocket. I left her at the club with a kiss and a date for the following night. That began a beautiful summer.

Linda told me she wanted no seriousness. The boyfriend gone to Illinois had been all too serious a breakup. I had no problem with that. She was laughter and comfortablenmess after so much gloom and uncertainty. By the end of summer, I was head over heels with her. The way she called my name was musical and I wanted to keep hearing it. At the end of the summer, Linda told me she was moving to Illinois and marrying the former boyfriend.

Linda stuck me hard. It was a mystery I never solved why she went back to the old boyfriend. My bouncer friend told me it was about submission and cocaine. I had seen no sign of either.

Not since TJ had anyone's leaving left me with such a gaping hole. The Rose of Spiceland and Judy M caught me on the rebound. T1 was still around. More importantly, I had work and the need to make money.

[T1 is still around in a way. I saw her this Spring, not a word from her since then. I tried looking up Judy M when I was released from the halfway house. She had moved around and I have found no trace of her. The bouncer friend I found had died while I was gone, so Linda remains a mystery but her influence has faded to a wispy memory. Her most direct influence was that I no longer had any expectations of marriage, of settling down to a quiet normal life. That woman could be a hobby but that work was my real life. sch 8/15/2026.]

 

6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 5

 [I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. Consider this post as more of an aborted memoir. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. Continued from 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 4 sch 8/14/2026]  

 Dawn disappeared on me almost 20 years ago because I foolishly said something about finally having sex with a girl from my high school. She got upset; saying something about competition. So much for saying a factual truth about how things had changed in my life. I thought she was funny, beautiful in a skinny brunette way, and eminently loveable. She was brightness to KA's dourness. Too bad my foot fits so well in my mouth. I learned later she married and had children and was quite happy with her life. Another exhibit of women doing better away from me. I applaud her success.

T2 came into my life in FEbruary of 1991. How did I first become aware of her? I cannto remember now. She was another lawyer in Anderson. I remember her telling me that she noticed me first. Our first date occurred at Anderson's Nile Restaurant. She wore a low-cut blouse with a red bra. When she leaned forward it was difficult to avoid noticing that particular combination. 

We belonged to the same profession, she had ended a bad relationship, and I was becoming disillusioned with KA. At this time, I was seeing KA and two other women. One ended quickly, while the other continued a while longer. That relationship  ended the night we pulled up at my apartment with this girlfriend's face in my lap and KA in my apartment. KA was supposed to be home with her children. (We only went out on the weekends when her ex-husband had visitation.)  I displeased the date by taking her home instead of us confronting KA. No way I wanted my date put in that position. When I came to my apartment, KA and I had an argument over a letter from T2. I patched things rather than deal with her anger. Now, only T2 and KA remained. Then it was only T2. She stayed somewhere in my life until my incareration.

T2 equaled T1 in height. They met once at JH's house, specifically her kitchen. T1 and T2 squared off across from each other. There was a singular look on T1's face as she took in T2; a combination of amusement and curiosity and speculation. What we men generally describe as catty. T2 stood next to me which left me unable to see her face, but I felt her bristle a bit. JH stood between and away from them with her back to the sink, a bit drunk, and trying to be nonchalant with her amusement at my discomfort. I waited for all hell to break loose. Then the smell of marijuana wafted into the kitchen from JH's sister and friends in the living room. T2 suggested we depart. We said our goodbyes, Once in the car, she noted she had never been to any place where her boyfriend had slept with three of the four women there. I did not mention I once flirted with JH's sister. T2 never said anything specific about T1.

 sch

[Continued in 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 6. sch 8/14.]

6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 4

 [I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. Consider this post as more of an aborted memoir. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. Continued from 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 3 sch 8/14/2026]  

JH and I were involved sexually before I went off to law school, before TJ broke up with me, during my time in law school, and after her divorce. No details are needed by you. She even proposed to me. I sometimes wonder what have happened if I had taken her proposal seriously. Nowadays, she and another friend of mine have been deeply attached for over a decade. When she took up with him, we started talking; a a bit of pique and shard words. Neither speak to me any longer.

Cindy F. and Connie W. came into my life about the same time. I cannot remember who came first. I like to think it was Connie, who nicely sent me on my way as she went back to her ex-boyfriend. Both were blondes; Connie was kind with a broad smile as she orgasmed. Cindy was none of that.

Filled with divrocee's resentment, Cindy came riding hard and furious and left quickly, too. JH warned me against her; Cindy being a first cousin. She was the first anti-TJ. 

I lost track of Connie until her murder. She came home from work to have her soon to be ex-husband shoot her as she walked to her house. There had been a protective order - so much for them. Then he killed himself. The deaths of many people might improve the world. Hers did not.

The friend now so attached to JH introduced me to KA. It was a wild time with threesomes and oral sex in cars being turn ons for her. On our first date, she told me she had had a husband and did not need another, nor did her children need another husband. I took this seriously, even if she quietly changed her mind about the husband bit. She is one of two women toward whom I have some resentment. Because I relied on her statement of what she wanted. She changed her mind by the end of our relationship. By then, she was telling friends of mine of her intent to marry me within the next six months. Too bad she had played the tight-mouthed, too jealous, humorless girlfriend for too long by this time. If she had come and made an outright offer, things could have been different for her. KA made another mistake by not involving her children in the marriage question. My mother did not marry again until all three of us children approved. I would not marry a woman who with children unless they approved of me. So, we did not marry. Not liking the feeling of chains, at one point I was dating three other women at the same time. Our ending was not pretty. She began acting more irrational than usual. She informed me that the wild sex was just to please me. If so, she had been a great actress, the enthusiasm in her eyes did not seem easily faked. This angered me as I had never asked anyone to do anything they did not want to do. We broke up.

Several years ago, KA turned up and asked me to get her divorced from her second husband. I did. She never finished paying her bill. Go figure that out. KA was the second anti-TJ in many ways. She has been one of three who might have actually helped my career.  

sch

[Since writing this KA is one of two of my ex-girlfriends I would like to speak with. As time went by, questions grew and I would liek answers, but not enough to hunt her down. 

JH died in 2015. I omitted one conversation with had in 2008 or 2009 and the one time I saw her about the same time. I failed to follow up with the phone conversation just as I failed to speak with her when I saw her.  She died from cirrhosis of the liver. Her boyfriend did not tell me she was ill. I wish he had it would have motivated me to change the course of my life. Since her death, I have given up any thoughts of new romantic attachments. I am not convinced that anyone's attachment to me did them any good. More importantly, that I am not that good of a friend. JH was a far better friend to me than I was to her. The boyfriend has become a former friend of mine. I suppose he wants to avoid any possible taking up with my ex-wife. He once turned down T1's advances because she was an ex-girlfriend of mine. When he told me this, I emphasized ex-girlfriend, so perhaps ex-wives do not count or he is too ashamed to speak with me. What he does not understand is that his letting JH drink herself to death angers me.

Continued in 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 5. sch 8/14.]

Group Session Notes: July 2026

Another sign that procrastion remains; it is my oldest vice.

7/3:

Self-assurance or inner peace.

Steps to:

1. Think of yourself less often
2. Live according to values. Integrity plays a big role.
3. Get good at what matters to you.

[Ah, values. Nietzsche trashed Western values over a century ago. Nihilism rises out of their lack. Integrity dissipates when values are shown to be worthless. When society values hypocrisy, when society values the grifter and the performance over the substance, then integrity must be able to subsist in the desert. Nihilism leaves only destruction of one's self, of the world, as the only thing that matters. The only way I found to get out from under my nihilism was to have a complete breakdown, a return to the consolations of philosophy (starting with Aristotle and David Hume), reforging a will to live my life on my own terms, and ended with me entering the Eastern Orthodox Church. sch 8/15/26]

Live with integrity makes life better, not being ashamed.

[See Albert Camus's The Rebel. See Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. sch 8/15/26]

How to get out of your head -

1. grounding
1. form of attentiuon mindfulness - goal is to be present in the moment.
2. mindful eating (been here before) 
2. Actuall practicing gratitude 

6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 3

[I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. Consider this post as more of an aborted memoir. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. Continued from 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 2 sch 8/14/2026]  

I spent most of 1988 licking my wounds over T1. There was an encounter with Cindy—a wonderfully erotic and tender pair of encounters - but she would not go out with me again. There was a bit of shared history from college that she could not get over. She never knew that she had just to snap her fingers. Delicate, sweet Cindy married in 2008 or 2009. I wish her well.

And there was an encounter with Shelly about then. Questions raised since high school got an answer of sorts. Having dated what seemed like all my friends. I was curious about her charms. She proved TJ's theory that great sex requires love, passion. I would go so far as to say that good sex requires affection for one another. Never go to bed with a woman who does not laugh.

 Then I spent a considerable time mooning over LAH again. She would invate and then push away when I got too close.

And then I met Paula of Bloomington while working for a bill collector. Her wit led me to ask her for a date. She possessed all the energy and loveliness of TJ. Sandy-haired and buxom. Wonderfully energetic in bed with a habit of scratching one's back. Her two children were her life. If I had the nerve then to become a stepfather; it would have been an interesting marriage. I lost track of Paula after 1998. She shared another quality with TJ: the world was with her in it. Perhaps my affection for Bloomington has a lot to do with Paula.

I think time has come Regina. Another on/off relationship with her for a few years.  I lost track of her between 1993 and 2008. I saw her at the Madison County Government Center. She was even livelier than when we dated. Like T1, she was about 5'10”. Of women I should have married, she was number 3. Regina had the temper to keep me in line, the brains to keep me from getting bored, and a sex drive to keep us both busy. Unlike any other, the end of our relationship was not primarily because of my emotional disabilities. No, Regina felt her being African-American would cause me problems. Not that she ever asked me how I felt. She would tell my friend JH that I was the only white guy she would go out with. Regina never knew how much I loved her.

sch

[When I returned from prison, I found out Paula died in 2010. She had health problems when I knew her. Regina was the onlyex-girlfriend to write me in prison. Continued in 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 4 sch 8/14/2026]   

6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 2

[I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. Consider this post as more of an aborted memoir. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. Continued from 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 1 sch 8/14/2026] 

KH threw a New Year's party in Anderson to which he invited me and T1. Not as a couple, not as a matchmaking venture. I have not mentioned T1 was 5'10”, had light-brown hair; that night she wore slacks, an Oxford shirt, a pink sweater, and a thin black leather tie. We drank, chatted, and flirted. I could not resist reminding her about her seeing me on her back porch and ruining her fun at a party in the summer. She blushed as pink as her seater. We were both intoxicated when midnight passed and she suggested I follow her back to her Muncie aprtment.

She was 21, and I learned a lot from her. T1's favorite movie was 9 1/2 Weeks.  She had the novel as well. I got a hint of what was to come that first night when she told me to tie her up. Clueless, I wrapped the tie around her thigh. She taught me different in the following months.

The relationship stopped at the end of the school year with a couple of eruptions after that. I have not heard much from her since I married. Although T1 married a fellow who did not like me and has been married the second-longest of my friends, there were vibes given off that she disapproved of my marriage. I think like most of my ex-girlfriends, she did better without me than with me. I find solace in that.

However, she has a more current reason for being angry at me. T1 is the mother of my only son. He contacted me through Facebook; I expected a phone call and never contacted him before my arrest. She had opted for an open adoption, so he knew who I was. His birth ended my sexual relationship with T1 and the start of our friendship.

What followed was a bit more muddled. 

 sch

[I looked up T1 this year. It was a bit surreal. Yes, it had been over, or about, 20 years since I saw her. She did not recognize me. She had no interest in speaking with me, but was not outright rude. About our son, she made it clear that they had not spoken in years. Our son knows how to reach me; he has not. I do not think it would be good for him to be associated with me, so I stay silent. Continued in 6-6-2010: The Women In My Life; Part 3. sch 8/14/2026]