Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance

Appointed to IU in 1985

Dale McFadden has been a faculty member at Indiana University since 1985. He serves as associate chair in the Department of Theatre, Drama and Contemporary Dance, where he also heads the M.F.A. acting and directing programs. Dale supplemented his theatrical training with attendance at University of London and Trinity College in Dublin before going on to direct professionally in Chicago. He has worked at the Goodman Studio, Steppenwolf, The Theatre Building, The Raven Theatre, Renaissance Rep, Chicago Dramatists, and was artistic director at The Body Politic. His Chicago production of The King's Clown won several Joseph Jefferson Award citations.

Dale's directing interests include classical works, modern drama, and new plays. Some favorite credits include Table 17 and Tweaked at NYC’s 78th Street Theatre; High Holidays at Chicago’s Victory Gardens; and This, Mauritius, Stuff Happens, Fat Pig, and A Number at the Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis.

For IU Theatre he recently directed Pride and Prejudice, Lacy and Ashley . . ., The School for Scandal, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, Marat/Sade, Dead Man Walking, and Macbeth as well as The Gentleman from Indiana, The Miracle Worker, The Matchmaker, You Can’t Take It With You, and Ah, Wilderness!, for The Indiana Festival Theatre. He was a director at Brown County Playhouse for twenty-five seasons. At Crossroads Repertory Theatre, he directed the Midwestern premiere of Terre Haute (also presented at Indiana Repertory Theatre.) Other credits include Table 17 and Tweaked at 78th Street Theatre in New York City; a staged reading of High Holidays at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theatre, and River City, Seminar, This, Mauritius, Stuff Happens, Fat Pig, and A Number at the Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis.

He returned in May 2014 to the Here and Now Festival in Mannheim, Germany to direct the premiere of A Letter from Aunt Sophie, a new play based on the life of Polish Resistance Leader Jan Karski. The production also toured Poland before it returned for a United States Premiere in Indiana at Crossroads Repertory Theatre and Chopin Theatre in Chicago followed by a new production recently presented at The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington. This summer Dale was a Teacher for Mini University, and his Topic was Theatre Training at Indiana University: A long and esteemed Tradition.

Dale has taught all levels of acting and directing at Indiana University, and in 2001 Dale participated in the International Conference on Actor Training in Paris. He has also been a frequent director at the New Play Development Conference for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.