Faculty, Staff, and Production

Dr. Lisa Brooks is currently the Dean of the Jordan College of the Arts at Butler, in addition to Professor of Violin. She held previous faculty appointments at Baylor University, the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, Messiah College, and Dickinson College.

Dr. Brooks received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in violin performance in four years from West Virginia University, where she was a student of Donald Portnoy. While completing her doctorate in violin performance from the State University of NewYork at Stony Brook, she studied with Joyce Robbins, and as a member of the Stony Brook graduate piano trio, coached extensively with Julius Levine and Gilbert Kalish. Other important teachers have included Rafael Bronstein, Ariana Bronne, Stanley Ritchie, William DePasquale, and Carol Taleff.

As an orchestral musician, Dr. Brooks is currently principal second violinist of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and a frequent substitute musician with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra on both violin and viola. She was associate concertmaster of the Waco Symphony and performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Opera Company of Philadelphia, and Harrisburg and Reading Symphony Orchestras; she also has toured nationally with the Pennsylvania Ballet Company. She was an artist-fellow at the 1984 and1985 Bach Aria Festivals, and was a finalist in the 1981 A.S.T.A. National Solo Competition. Dr. Brooks was a founding member of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, a period-instrument ensemble.

Influenced by workshops and training sessions she has participated in at the Lincoln Center Institute for Aesthetic Education in New York City, Dr. Brooks has developed and taught a variety of academic courses at Butler. These include a non-traditional, listening-based approach to music appreciation for non-music majors, as well as a two-semester First Year Seminar sequence based on Classical Music and Society, which incorporates critical thinking, reading, writing, and speaking. In demand as a clinician for student musicians and teaching colleagues alike, her recent lectures and recitals have included presentations for the IMEA convention, the College Music Society’s Institute for Gender and Music, and a lecture-recital at a conference celebrating women in music held at Ohio University. In addition, Dr. Brooks presents the pre-concert lectures for the Ensemble Music Society.

In 2013, Dr. Brooks received the inaugural Faculty Award for Distinguished Service and Leadership from Butler University, and in 2001, she received a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.

Wendy Meaden – Professor of Theatre

Associate Dean, Jordan College of the Arts

Wendy is a professional costume designer and draper (pattern maker).  She currently mentors students and teaches courses in Costume Design, Fashion History, Mask Work, and Stage Makeup.

Wendy particularly enjoys fantastic collaborations with students, colleagues, professionals, and guests from around the world.  Together they explore new ideas about what theatre is, and what it might become.

“I love designing; it’s an immediate, visceral way to reach the heart, mind, and soul. Theatre engages us on many levels, and is the ultimate collaborative communication between writers, directors, designers, performers,  characters, technicians, and audience.”

She delights in facilitating the growth of thoughtful, inventive students into professional theatre artists, and is inspired by seeing our students apply their theatre training to areas that are meaningful to them and the world we live in now.

She earned her M.F.A. in Costume Design and Construction at Indiana University – Bloomington, and a B.A. in Theatre from Bates College.  She joined the Butler faculty following 10 seasons with Indiana RepertoryTheatre (IRT), where she was the lead draper/tailor. In addition to her patterning work with IRT, she has constructed costumes for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Louisville Ballet, the Huntington Theater, and the film The Best of the Best. She managed costume shops for The Theatre at Monmouth (Maine), the Nickerson Theatre, and Bates College. Wendy’s design career includes works for Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT), Cardinal Stage Company, ShadowApe, and The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, among others. Several of her designs were included in the exhibit Costume at the Turn of the Century in Moscow (2015) and in the World Stage Design Festival in Toronto (2005). 

In addition to teaching and designing at Butler, Wendy is an active member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), the Costume Society of America, the Fashion Arts Society, and Phi Beta Kappa.  As a recipient of several faculty fellowships, she has traveled throughout Europe, and to Ghana, where she studied Kente and Adinkra textiles.  Wendy is currently conducting research on and writing about masks, and she continues to freelance as a costume designer and maker.

Cathy Sipe attended University of Akron, where she began touring as an electrician with Ohio Ballet.  She spent several years alternating ballet tours with local freelancing, most notably with Great Lakes Theatre Festival and Vincent Lighting. In search of stability, she became the main stage light board operator at PlayersTheatre Columbus, OH, with summers spent as Master Electrician at American Dance Festival in Durham, NC. Encouraged by life in the South, she moved to Atlanta, GA to freelance in all areas of live performance, including conventions, concerts, theatre, dance, and a ridiculous number of corporate parties.  After moving back north for family reasons, Cathy took an administrative staff position at IATSE Local 30.  Cathy joined the Butler community as Master Electrician for the Jordan College of the Arts in 2008, working on theatre, dance, and opera productions.  Because of the wide variety of skills Cathy brings to the table, including lighting design, stage management, carpentry, and stitching, a new position was created and in 2018 Cathy became Technical Director for JCA. 

Cathy works with several other companies around town, including Dance Kaleidoscope, Indianapolis Opera, and IATSE Local 30.