IU student remembered for her love of acting

Madeline Krause spent her life doing what she loved to do the most – acting.

Krause was an actress who was able to “recite Dickens and Shakespeare with ease, and yet added just enough spunk to make it interesting and lively,” said Hannah Moss, a former actor and producer of the Monroe County Civic Theater’s production of a “Christmas Carol,” in an e-mail.

Krause died Saturday morning after falling from the top of the Seventh and Walnut streets garage building, according to a Bloomington Police Department report. The death was ruled a suicide.

Krause’s death came as a surprise to close friends of the 20-year-old.

Her father, Jim Krause, a professor in the IU Department of Telecommunications, said he spoke with his daughter just a few hours before the incident, and everything seemed to be fine with her, he said.

“She was doing well in school and was glowing just a day before,” Jim Krause said.

He said his daughter was autistic.

IU graduate student Daniel Youngren knew Madeline Krause through the Mystery Action Players a group that comes together to act out stories and games, Youngren said in an e-mail.

“I want people to remember Madeline as the beautiful, creative young lady she was,” Youngren said. “I knew her for merely a year, and she left an indelible mark on my life.”

The group was just one way she pursued her love of acting.

She participated in the Monroe County Civic Theater and the Bloomington Playwrights Project.

Breshaun Joyner, education director for the BPP, said Krause had been involved in its plays since she was 14 years old.

Krause participated in the BPP “mini play” program where youths wrote and performed plays, Joyner said. She also took a poetry class the BPP offered.

A poem she wrote took her to a statewide poetry competition.

“I was always proud of what she was doing or what she was attempting to do,” Joyner said. “Theater is hard. It’s a hard thing to get out there and put yourself out there and be confident in doing that. She was one of the few people that could get out there.”
Joyner said Krause always fully committed herself to every project with which she was involved.

Jim Krause said his daughter was thinking of transferring to Vincennes University in Vincennes, Ind., for theater productions.

Krause was a student at IU through the Hoosier Link between IU and Ivy Tech Community College.

Jim Krause said his daughter’s interest varied from playing the piano to religious studies.

“She loved music, culture and traveling,” Jim Krause said. “For her high school graduation, her and her mother traveled to Ireland.”

Her father said she had planned on going to Paris for spring break.

Although she aspired to travel, Jim Krause said his daughter’s dream was to return to Bloomington and teach at Harmony High School.

“Harmony School meant so much to her,” he said. “I think they have a very unique community (and) family atmosphere.”

Krause’s legacy will leave a mark on Harmony High School in other ways. The family is asking people to make donations in Madeline Krause’s memory for the Harmony School Scholarship Fund.

“If Bloomington itself were an artist, Maddie was like a rich shade of purple,” Moss said in an e-mail. “Maddie, you will be missed, but you will not be forgotten.”