To celebrate our alumni excellence across the arts, health, and education, the School of Education has selected four notable UW–Madison alumni to receive a Distinguished Alumni Award.
Deborah Dryden is being honored as the Distinguished Alumna in Theatre and Drama. She will be delivering a Distinguished Alumni Award presentation on Thursday, Sept. 12, titled, “Telling Stories Through Fabric and Clothing: Costume Design for the Theatre.” This will take place at 3:15 p.m. in the Education Building’s Wisconsin Idea Room (room 159).
Dryden has designed costumes for theatres around the nation and 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 also professor emerita of design at the University of California, San Diego, where she taught costume design for 17 years.
Dryden earned a BA in 1968 and an MFA in 1972 from UW–Madison’s Department of Theatre and Drama, which today is housed in the School of Education. (To learn more, check out her bio here.)
Following is a Q&A with Dryden:
What big idea or questions drive your work and career? How have you sought to answer them and what have you learned so far? What are you yet to learn?
Dryden: Well, the “big idea” question is a bit daunting. I have been retired from my work in theatre for five years. As a result, this invitation to come to Madison to talk about my career in costume design has given me the opportunity to be somewhat reflective about the path I took. In my talk I hope to demonstrate my long-time combined interests in the surface design of fabric and the creation of costumes for the stage. While I no longer design for the stage, I continue my interest and explorations in the world of fabric dyeing, painting, and surface manipulation.
Where are you from and what drew you to UW–Madison and the School of Education?
Dryden: I was born in England but grew up here in Fitchburg/Verona, when it was still a rural farming community (Unlike it is now!). I went to a one-room country school for the first six years of my education. We had one teacher for eight grades. Our “art” class was on the radio … a pilot program from WHA. While it was a bit odd to take a visual class in an aural medium, I suppose it might be considered a distant relative of taking art classes on Zoom! (I remember a wonderful article in the alumni magazine some time ago about this pilot program.)
My father, Ronald Mitchell, was a professor in the Theatre Department for many years. In fact, the Mitchell Theatre on the UW campus is named for him.
What do you enjoy most about your work in costume design?
Dryden: Costume design for the theatre requires a multifaceted skill set. It requires one to have a knowledge of theatre production practice. In addition, it helps to have experience in costume construction, art, fashion, fashion history, art history, theatre history, plays, and playwrights. In order to do all of this successfully, one must be part artist, sculptor, researcher, diplomat, negotiator, psychologist, and dramaturg. Of course I don’t profess to be all these things, but the role of the costume designer relies on this multifaceted skill set.
Versatility and flexibility are two of the most important traits I would ascribe to any creative process, but especially that of theatre/costume design. One of the features I have loved most about my work in the theatre is that the work is constantly varied. One minute one might be working on a classic play that has been performed for centuries interpreting it anew for a contemporary audience — and the next might be a new play in development that is being created for the first time in the rehearsal room. Each production is a new and different experience.
I also love the fact that theatre is a team sport. A successful production is the result of an extraordinary collaboration and synthesis of ideas from all the participants: actors, directors, designers, choreographers, composers, and, equally important, the artisans that fabricate and maintain the sets, the lights, and costumes. I have long believed that a training in theatre is an incredible life skill that can be applied to so many different professions.