Diane Brewer is the John David Lutz Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of Evansville. Her area of expertise is dramaturgy, with a particular focus on enhancing connections between dramatic texts, production teams, and audience communities. In her role as Director of Honors at UE, she applies this dramaturgical approach to fostering collaboration between the diverse groups of people who contribute to meaningful student learning. She extends this work at a national level as the Coordinator of Dramaturgy and Research Programming for the Kennedy Center National College Theatre Festival.

She has dramaturged upwards of fifty plays, directed university and touring productions, and developed new work in venues such as Tofte Lake Center, The New Harmony Project, the Utah Shakespearean Company Plays in Progress, the Mark Taper Forum’s P.L.A.Y. Her work as a director is a featured subject in Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets and a Classic American Musical (Gallaudet University Press). Her published articles have appeared in Theatre/Practice, The Dramaturgy Protocol, The Dramaturgy Sourcebook (vols. 4 and 5), Theatre Topics, PAJ: Performing Arts Journal, and HowlRound at the Center for Theater Commons.

She serves as an Artist Panel Reader for the Jewish Plays Project and volunteers for Cypress: The Committee to Promote Respect in Schools.

Dr. Brewer has received such honors as the Arts Educator of the Year Award (Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana), the Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award (University of Evansville College of Arts and Sciences), and the Diversity at Work Award (Office of Diversity Initiatives, University of Evansville). She holds a BA in Drama from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in theatre from UCLA.