Stan Denman

Stan Denman joined the faculty of Baylor University in 1992 and currently teaches courses in directing, acting, and playwriting. For 18 years (2000-2018), Professor Denman has also served as Chairman for the Department of Theatre Arts. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Abilene Christian University, a Master of Arts in Theatre from Baylor University, and a PhD in Theatre and the Performing Arts from the University of Pittsburgh.

As a director, Stan has directed approximately 35 productions at Baylor and beyond, including productions of THE ORESTEIA, ROMEO AND JULIET, THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE, NOISES OFF, THE SHAPE OF THINGS, URINETOWN, THE MUSICAL, ANNA IN THE TROPICS, LEGALLY BLONDE, APPROPRIATE and wrote and directed MARKING TIME for the 20/21 Baylor Theatre season.

As an actor, Stan has performed in numerous productions, making his Off-Broadway debut in 2006 in Horton Foote's THE TRAVELING LADY (Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play) in the role of Slim. In 2008, he played the role of Valdez in a critically acclaimed production of Craig Wright's drama THE UNSEEN at the Out-of-the-Loop Festival in Dallas, Texas.

In March of 2009, Stan went on to play the role of Valdez in the Off-Broadway premiere of THE UNSEEN at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre with playwright Craig Wright making "tweaks" to the script especially for this production.

Regionally, in May of 2014 Stan originated the role of Edwin M. Stanton in Steve Walters' historical drama BOOTH at Second Thought Theatre in Dallas, Texas. BOOTH was recognized by several critics as one of the best new plays generated in DFW in 2014 and Mother Jones recognized Stan's portrayal of Stanton as one of the "great performances" of the year. And in October of 2017 he performed the role of Judge Roan/The Old Confederate Soldier in PARADE at Water Tower Theatre in Addison. 

As a playwright, Stan's play EMBRACING received its professional world premiere at Stage West in Fort Worth, Texas in 2006. A much-revised subsequent version of EMBRACING won one of three coveted spots in the 2007 Richard and Betty Burdick Play Reading Series at Florida Studio Theatre. In 2019, his play A BETTER MAN (co-written with Eduardo Velez III) had its first workshop production at the New Horizon’s Play Festival at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Dr. Denman's area of interest in traditional scholarly research lies at the intersection of conservative Protestant Christianity and the theatre. In the year 2000, Dr. Denman was one of three Americans invited to sit on a fifteen-member panel of international scholars in Perpignan, France to discuss regional identity and the arts from a global perspective. In 2004 his research article "Political Playing for the Soul of the American South: Theatre and the Maintenance of Cultural Hegemony in the American Bible Belt," appeared in The Southern Quarterly.

As an educator, Dr. Denman has taught some two dozen different courses on both graduate and undergraduate levels during his tenure at Baylor University, ranging from acting to theatre history, and playwriting to dramatic theory and criticism. In the year 2000, he was named the College/University Educator of the Year by the Texas Educational Theatre Association.

Stan is also very interested in world travel and is the current director of the Baylor Theatre Abroad program which began in the summer of 2008. Traveling in even-numbered summers for almost a month abroad, the program has taken dozens of theatre majors to see great theatre and have the time of their lives in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Greece. Beginning in 2015, Dr. Denman also began an initiative with Christ University in Bangalore, India to help create cultural exchange experiences with young Indian artists on the other side of the globe. Most recently in January of 2025, Stan traveled to India with 11 Baylor students, and award-winning playwright Dael Orlandersmith to collaborate with a dozen Indian student performers to devise an original theatre work around the themes of our common human experience.

In September of 2025 Dr. Denman helped to spearhead the first inaugural Baylor New Play Initiative—a partnership with 13 Texas professional theatres, over two dozen actors, and 4 playwrights to bring 4 new plays to life in the form of staged readings. For this event, he also served as dramaturg for Jack Cummings’ play & SONS which went on to win the inaugural $15,000 Preston Kirk New Play Prize. 

As of late, Stan is playing his greatest role to date—Bapu to his first grandchild, Elliot.