Deb Dryden

Education

MFA, University of Wisconsin-Madison


Biography

Deb Dryden has designed costumes for theatres including the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, American Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Intiman Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Asolo Theatre, Alaska Repertory Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Minnesota Opera Company, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. She has also designed for the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and the San Diego Opera. She was the principal costume designer for Malashock Dance and Company in San Diego from 1994-1997.

Deborah has had a 35 year working relationship as a designer with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, and currently holds the position of Resident Costume Designer Emerita for that company.

She designed the costumes for the premiere production of Robert Schenkkan’s “All The Way” for A.R.T and on Broadway.

Deborah is one of the recipients of the national Michael Merritt Award for excellence in design and collaboration, as well as the USITT Distinguished Achievement Award in Costuming. In 2014 she received the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award.

She is the author of the book "Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre" and a contributing author to “ The Costumer’s Handbook” by Ingham and Covey.

Exhibitions of her designs have appeared at the Prague Quadrennial, the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Deborah is Professor Emerita of Design at the University of California-San Diego, where she taught costume design for 17 years.

She currently resides in Ashland, Oregon.