Dr. Ben Stasny

Dr. Ben Stasny is thrilled to join the faculty at K-State! He moved to Kansas from Colorado where he spent the last 6 years actively involved in theatre and education. He received his PhD in Theatre & Performance Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder and became certified as a facilitator of Theatre of the Oppressed from the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre and Mandala Center for Change.

Before joining K-State, Ben worked at Red Rocks Community College in Denver where he developed Open Educational Resources in Musical Theatre History and Theatre Voice & Diction. While in Boulder, Ben directed the plenary session for the United Nations' Annual Global Climate Summit and co-produced two international Stand-Up Comedy Shows about climate change at the Boulder Theater.

Ben's research centers on embodied exploration and collaborative knowledge production. He has interests in improvisation, Theatre of the Oppressed, theatre history, musical theatre, climate change, environmental communications, and much more. The intertwining of and dialogue between these subjects can be explored through embodied engagement.

Some of Ben's favorite directing credits include Little Shop of Horrors, Hadestown: Teen Edition, Lend Me a Tenor, The Fall of Man (a new multimedia opera), and serving as Resident Director for Boulder's annual New Musical Project since 2022. Some of Ben's favorite performance credits include: King Arthur in Spamalot (Town Hall Arts Center), Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, Pirelli in Sweeney Todd (Arizona Broadway Theatre), Ernst in Cabaret (Palace Theatres and Sierra Repertory Theatre), The Genie in Aladdin (Disney Cruise Line), and as an actor in the New York New Works Festival in New York City (Off-Broadway)

Ben will be serving as the dialect coach for K-State Theatre's upcoming production of Cabaret.

Ben's classes at K-State Fall 2026:
THTR 171: Fundamentals of Acting
THTR 265: Fundamentals of Improvisation
THTR 472: Theatre History I