Costume Design Students Represent USU Well at Regional Conference

Three Utah State University students who study costume design in Utah State’s Theatre Arts Department captured top awards at a recent regional theater conference, and one of the winners now travels to Washington, D.C., for a national gathering and competition.

Taking honors at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival’s Region VIII conference were USU graduate students Jenny Schwartzman and Hongji Zhu and undergraduate Katie Parks Eborn.

The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival — or KCACTF — is a national theater program involving 18,000 students from colleges and universities nationwide. Since its founding in 1969, it has grown into a network of more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country where theater departments and student artists showcase their work and receive outside assessment. Regional conferences are held across the country, culminating in a national gathering at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Utah State’s Theatre Arts Department belongs to Region VIII and its conference was held Feb. 10-14 at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. The region includes Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Southern California, Hawaii and Guam.

Utah State is known as a top theater design school in the region and has the only graduate level costume design program in the state of Utah, according to USU theatre arts faculty member Dennis Hassan who temporarily coordinates the program while its lead faculty member, Nancy Hills, is on sabbatical leave. Its students consistently take top honors at the regional conference.

Hills, who is currently in Great Britain, responded to the USU wins via email writing “I am so proud that I am absolutely bursting at the seams.”

Each of the USU students was recognized in various categories at the conference.

Schwartzman, a second year graduate student, won the graduate level theoretical costume design category for the show “The Very Persistent Tappers of Frip.” At USU she is pursuing a master of fine arts degree in costume design. She is from the Ogden, Utah, area.

Zhu is an international student studying at USU and is from ShangHai, China. She received an honorable mention award for realized costume designs for “The Game of Love and Chance” presented fall 2014 at USU. Her designs included elaborate period costumes and wigs. She is a third-year graduate student who will complete her degree in summer 2015. She hopes to work for either a theater company as a costume designer or as a design assistant.

Eborn is a senior at USU about to graduate with a bachelor of fine arts degree specializing in costume design. She will also earn a minor in art. At the conference she received the national KCACTF Award for Theatrical Excellence in Costume for her actualized designs for “Bus Stop,” which was also presented fall 2014 at USU. She will travel to the national competition and workshops at the Kennedy Center in April 2015. Following graduation she plans to work for a year and then attend graduate school.

“Katie is exceptional with extraordinary skills,” Hassan said. “She will do well in graduate school. She is very organized and her designs are well thought out and her detailed sketches are both artistic and practical.”

Her rendering skills are especially strong, he said.

At the national conference Eborn will have the opportunity to learn from and work with professional designers, many representing Broadway and the professional world.

“USU has a history of students reaching the national competition at the Kennedy Center,” Hassan said. “We’ve had several national winners.”

In fact, USU theater student Steven Piechocki won the 2014 national competition in lighting design. He is now a third-year graduate student who will complete his degree this semester.

“I’m proud of our costume design students,” said Theatre Arts Department Head Kenneth Risch. “The quality of their work reflects on the training they receive and is an example of our department’s mission to provide advanced training in the department’s concentration areas. Their successes reflect the dedication and hard work of all our students.”

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Contact: Dennis Hassan, (435) 797-3025, dennis.hassan@usu.edu

Writer: Patrick Williams, (435) 797-1354, patrick.williams@usu.edu