From 1896 to 1920, Mary Settle Sharpe served as an instructor of elocution in speech. She also staged numerous dramatic presentations and productions. After Sharpe's retirement in 1920, the English department absorbed the fields of elocution and expression, renaming them speech and drama. William Raymond Taylor joined the faculty to teach speech in 1921, but he quickly focused on theater. Taylor spent thirty-nine years in the English Department and introduced the first courses in drama. Drama, originally an extracurricular activity, was integrated by Taylor into the school curriculum. Student dramatic groups were united into the Masqueraders, an honorary society, and the Play-Likers. The latter eventually evolving into a student and community theater company.

Drama remained within the English Department until 1953 when a separate department was formed. Under the new leadership of Herman Middleton in 1956, the department flourished. Approximately one-seventh of the student population as involved in play production by 1960. In that same year, speech courses were officially incorporated into the Department of Drama renamed the Department of Drama and Speech. It was later renamed the Department of Communication and Theatre in 1977. Eventually, in 1995, the department was divided into the Department of Communication and the Department of Broadcasting/Cinema and Theatre. In 2000, the Department of Broadcasting/Cinema and Theatre chose to separate into two departments. Thus, the Department of Theatre officially came into being.