COLLEEN MUSCHACostume Design and Costume History Professor--Florida State University |
| Colleen Muscha has designed costumes at numerous regional theatres
including the Cleveland Play House, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana
Festival, Wisdom Bridge, Northlight Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, the Dallas
Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, the Alabama Shakespeare
Festival and Pennsylvania Centre Stage. New York City design credits
include the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Equity Library Theatre and the Theatre
for the New City. As former resident costume designer for the Milwaukee
Repertory Theatre, her designs include Born Yesterday, Mother Courage,
and The Glass Menagerie, which also successfully toured Japan.
Among her favorite designs are King Lear, Ah, Wilderness!, Man of
La Mancha, Antigone, Much Ado About Nothing, Translations,
and The Tempest.
Ms. Muscha has designed costumes for the original productions of David Mamet's Lakeboat, Larry Shue's The Nerd and Amlin Gray's Kingdom Come. She was cited for Best Costume Design by the Dallas Critics Circle for Othello (1982), with Morgan Freeman in the lead role, and Crimes of the Heart (1984). Other noted actors she has designed for include: Harold Gould, Lois Nettledon, Valerie Mahaffey, Michael Rooker, Joe Morton, Rosemary Prinz and Lili Taylor. She has also served as costume consultant for Celebration--America On Ice produced by Jo Jo Starbuck and Ken Shelley for the United States Figure Skating Association. Skaters, in this event, included Brian Boitano, and Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner. This event was televised on ABC Wide World of Sports. Television credits include costume designs for the TV documentary Rosewood Massacre produced by WFSU--PBS and a TV pilot of a children's show EEK-TV the adventures of a family of mice living in a TV Studio. Costume design renderings for The Love Talker, which was produced for the Actor's Theatre of Louisville--Humana Festival and directed by Jon Jory, were included in the USITT Design Exposition 1988. This exhibit also tour the US with stops at the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center. Plus, her costumes and renderings were included in an exhibit at Spirit Center for the Arts in Charlotte, NC. Her costume designs, renderings and photos are included in both the Costume Designer's Handbook and Costume Technician's Handbook by Rosemary Ingham and Elizabeth Covey. Her costume designs and photos were also featured in the March 1992 issue of Theatre Crafts magazine. Costume technology work includes draping at the Santa Fe Opera and working as a draper's assistant at Barbara Matera's in NYC on such Broadway shows as: Big River, Singin' in the Rain and La Cage Aux Folles. She has also worked at Henson Associates stitching on the Muppet Arena Show. She has also has special technical skills in costume crafts, millinery, and fabric modification such as: dying, painting, silkscreening and weaving. Ms. Muscha received her MFA in Costume and Scene Design from Southern Methodist University. She is a member of United Scenic Artists professional theatrical designer's union and is currently a tenured professor of costume design at Florida State University. This is her tenth year teaching costume design and history at Florida State. She is Track Director for the MFA in Costume Design. She designs costumes plus oversees all student costume designers for the School of Theatre. Her costume design work at FSU has included: The Importance of Being Earnest, Taftuffe, A Doll's House, Hello, Dolly!, A Christmas Carol, Antigone, Into the Woods, The Rover, Carousel, Our Town, Sweet Charity, Les Liaison Dangereuses, Cabaret, The Bacchae and Red Noses. In 1994 and 1997 she received the Teaching Incentive Award from
Florida State for outstanding teaching.
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