Detail of Macduff armor from Macbeth. Design by Deborah Mitchell Dryden, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Interviews/Press
- "A profile of Deborah Dryden: the costume creates character" by Lindsay Christians, Capital Times/77 Square, February 27, 2010
- "Costume designer featured as artist in residence" by Gwen Evans, Wisconsin Week, March 24, 2010
Biography
Deborah Dryden has designed costumes for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 30 seasons, and has been the Resident Costume Designer at OSF since 1997. Dryden moved to Ashland, Oregon after an extended teaching career at the University of California–San Diego (where she is Professor Emerita of Design). Dryden has designed costumes for theatres including the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, the Alley Theatre in Houston, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Diego Opera, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre.
Dryden’s book “Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre” is an authoritative source on techniques in her field, and her fabric designs have been seen at the Guthrie Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and in exhibitions nationwide. Her work also appears in “The Costumer’s Handbook” (Ingham and Covey, Heinemann Press).
Deborah is the recipient of the national Michael Merritt Award for excellence in design and collaboration, as well as the USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Costuming. Her design work was included in the Prague Quadrennial International Design Exhibition in 2003. Most recently her work was included in the exhibit “Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance” at the NY Public Library in Lincoln Center.
Deborah received her B.A. and M.F.A. in theatre design from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She currently resides in Ashland, Oregon.
More information
For more information on Deborah Dryden and the Interdisciplinary Arts Residency program, please contact Kate Hewson at 608-263-9290 or kahewson@wisc.edu.