This essay urges the field of applied theatre to extend its critical focus to examine how whiteness differentially shapes our institutional homes, scholarship, and creative practice. Drawing from Sara Ahmed's (2012) notion of 'institutional life', the essay takes readers into my academic home at the University of Missouri, a predominantly white public institution in the middle of the US, to examine my direction of a critical performance effort, "The Revolutionists" Project. Throughout the essay, I show how a wall of whiteness shaped the design of the performance project and, as such, worked to obstruct critical conversations about racism and institutional life.