Dee Dee Batteast

Joined the Mechanics: 2018
Hometown: South Bend, Indiana
Homebase: Chicago, Illinois

Dee Dee’s work with Waltzing Mechanics includes the creation of her own documentary performance No AIDS, No Maids: Stories I Can’t F*ckin’ Hear No More in partnership with Gloucester Stage Company. She also co-directed Dwandra Nickole Lampkin’s The Conviction of Lady Lorraine with fellow Mechanic Thomas Murray.

Dee Dee is a Chicago-based actor, director, writer, and teacher. Her credits include work at Goodman Theatre (The Ohio State Murders, The Winter’s Tale), Drury Lane Theatre (A Christmas Carol), Clarence Brown Theatre (Detroit ‘67), Illinois Shakespeare Festival (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry V, Shakespeare in Love), Virginia Stage Company (The Parchmen Hour), and PlayMakers Repertory Company (In the Next Room, A Raisin in the Sun). TV credits include Chicago Fire (NBC). Dee Dee received her undergraduate degree from Ball State University and her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches acting on the faculty of Ball State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

She is a writer and activist who believes that art has the power to change the world, because art has the power to shape the conversations that change the world.