Deborah Dryden has designed costumes for theatres nationwide, including the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Denver Center Theatre Company, Guthrie Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Minnesota Opera Company, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She designed the costumes for the premiere production of Robert Schenkkan’s “All The Way” for the American Repertory Theater and on Broadway.
Dryden is the resident costume designer emerita for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she had the privilege of designing for four decades.
Throughout her career, Dryden developed her interest in fabric painting and dyeing for the theatre. Her work in that field resulted in the publication of a book on the subject, “Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre.” She continues to explore new techniques in surface design.
Awards include the national Michael Merritt Award for excellence in design and collaboration, USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Costuming and the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award.
Exhibitions of her designs have appeared at the Prague Quadrennial, the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Dryden is professor emerita of design at the University of California-San Diego, where she taught costume design for 17 years.