KOKOMO, Ind. — Putting on a theatrical performance involves bringing a lot of people together. That’s what makes it special, according to Joann Kaiser.

“What makes it special, is the few people that you have working on the show have the same focus,” Kaiser said. “They come together, there’s a lot of challenges, but those challenges are met.”

A teaching professor in communication arts, Kaiser has helped to guide the performing arts at Indiana University Kokomo since 2008, after serving for several years off and on, beginning in 1989 as an adjunct professor. Now, she’s looking toward retirement at the end of the spring 2025 semester.

“It’s just time,” she said. “I’ll be 67, and it’s time for the students to have fresh ideas, someone fresher… the program is changing, it’s time.”

In her path toward teaching, Kaiser double majored in theatre and speech at Ball State University, later earning her master’s degree in speech and theatre. At IUK, she started out by teaching the campus’ public speaking courses, but took on acting courses in the fall of 2010, along with her first show – Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

“It feels like home,” she said of IUK. “I know that’s almost cliché right now, but I taught part time at Taylor University, at Goshen College, and it didn’t feel right until I came back here.

“It’s just been a really good place to be.”

Now, IUK has a theatre minor and Kaiser runs the fall plays, while Wendy Grice, director of music, runs the spring musicals.

“What we’ve learned was that acting classes, theatre classes, were a tool for retention,” Kaiser said. “A lot of students who came in found their group, found their community, which always happens with theatre and performing.”

That community, where students found love and married, and found lifelong friends, led to the choice of Kaiser’s final play, Pride and Prejudice.

Eleven years ago, three young women Kaiser described as “Jane Austen nuts” begged her to put on the show. It’s an easy adaptation, she said, that tells the story of the novel in a fast-paced style with a minimal set that focuses on the characters.

“I wasn’t sure if guys would audition,” Kaiser said, but 50 students showed up to audition.

Kaiser is still in touch with her alumni, and when the choice was made to stage the production again, she reached out and asked, “How would you like to return to Brighton?”

With the help and support of Ben Liechty, director of alumni relations, alumni from IUK’s past shows – including Pride and Prejudice– returned to IU Kokomo to support the newest cast in the fall production, running from November 15-17 in Havens Auditorium.

Hannah Jarvis, who graduated in 2017 with a degree in secondary education with a concentration in English and a minor in creative arts, was inspired by Kaiser to take part in the performing arts at IUK.

“Solely Joann,” she said. “It was solely Joann.”

Portraying Mrs. Bennett in the first production, Jarvis had come to IUK from another college and was encouraged to take part by a friend who praised Kaiser.

“Ever since I met her (Kaiser), she has been instrumental in my career as a teacher and in theatre,” Jarvis said.

“We created such a family with that cast, and Joann being the head of it. I felt like I grew as a person with Joann; whatever environment she created, there was growth and support, and not only a push for her ideas, but a push for your ideas.”

Coming back was a no-brainer, Jarvis said.

Returning to Brighton was also an easy yes for Summer Rogers, a member of the class of 2016, who took on the female lead role of Elizabeth Bennett in the original cast.

“I was excited to be in a show of Joann’s,” Rogers said of her experience in her first show under Kaiser.

Describing her experience as, “incredible,” Rogers called her time in the performing arts “one of (my) favorite things I did.”

“It really did feel like a family,” she said, “Just because everyone was so accepting and kind. Joann had a way of making everybody feel important and she always saw everyone’s capabilities, and was all about giving people opportunities to express those.”

As the curtain fell in Havens Auditorium, Kaiser expressed her hopes for the future of the performing arts at IUK and in the Kokomo area.

“I think people understand that it shouldn’t just be STEM that we’re focusing on, it should be STEAM,” she said.

“My hope is that we don’t see it disappear, that we can be a feeding ground for those people.”

Kaiser hopes that the performing arts program will continue at IU Kokomo.

“It would be really nice for someone to keep the program going for students to find that community and to take it out into this area, where there’s lots of opportunities to be involved in the performing arts.”

Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.