Aly Renee Amidei is one of 13 new faculty members who started with the School of Education this past fall. Here is a Q&A she completed as we introduced her to our campus and School communities.
Title: Assistant professor of design in the Department of Theatre and Drama
Hometown: Streamwood, Illinois
Educational/professional background: BA in theater, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois; MFA in costume design, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; Fashion Design Certificate, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. I worked at the College of DuPage as the assistant costumer, and then as the costume coordinator for 15 years. Then seven years at the UNC-Charlotte, where I was the associate professor of the costume design before coming to UW.
What is your field of research? I am a costume designer and playwright focusing on new works and re-envisioned classics. I additionally tend to work with ensemble-based theatre companies, and I am a member of two pillars of the Chicago Storefront Theatre community; Lifeline Theatre and Strawdog Theatre. I was also a founding member and the former artistic director of WildClaw Theatre, a horror theatre company in Chicago. Recently, my research has been on improving access and inclusion in costume design practices and theatre pedagogy for people with disabilities. As a playwright, I have written stage adaptations for theatre for young audiences as well as horror plays, audio dramas, and immersive theatre. A future area of research for me is on immersive theatre and the growing complexity of costume design for video games.
How did you get into this field? I got into theatre and costume design by accident. I went to school with the idea that I was going to do something biomedical or maybe chemical engineering. I had student work-study hours for my financial aid to attend Knox. My resident advisor happened to be a costume design major. When I mentioned to her that I had been sewing my own clothes since I was a wee bairn, she helped me get a position in the college costume department. I never left.
What attracted you to UW–Madison? Besides amazing colleagues and tremendous research support, I am so excited to be closer to my family and to where I do much of my creative research in Chicago. I am also looking forward to making new connections in the creative communities in Madison and beyond.
What was your first visit to campus like? I had been to campus back when I was at Knox College. I played varsity tennis and we had our division tournaments in Madison. Knox was a tiny school of around 1,000 students. UW seemed like a giant kaiju of an institution. Even now, I can barely fathom the campus footprint and scale of activities happening here. That creative and intellectual energy feels like it is charging the air around here.