Graduate Costume Technology
Graduate Costume Technology
The Costume Technician is the artist that can transform a rendering into reality. In our Costume Technology graduate concentration, you will have the opportunity to refine and expand your skills in creative problem solving, craftsmanship, rendering interpretation and management. Our students create garments crucial to telling the story across the spectrum of the entertainment industry during their time on campus, and throughout their professional costume technology careers.
Master of Fine Arts
First Year
During your first year of the Costume Technology concentration, your focused coursework
will include theatrical patterning and construction; a shop practice course, which
will be instrumental in learning machine operation, organization and safety; and a
costume design course to learn the principles of costume design. Supporting coursework
may include costume design, digital media, sculpture, stage properties, wigs and makeup.
The production class is designed to partner with your formal classroom studies to
enable you to put the skills and concepts into practice on the school’s 15-20 student
designed and produced productions each academic year. As your abilities grow, you
will take on increasingly larger loads, more complex projects and bigger teams to
manage.
Second Year
More courses in costume shop management will be offered in your second year, as well
as progressively more challenging technology courses covering advanced problem-solving
skills, and pattern development (flat patterning, draping, and drafting), construction
techniques (theatrical tailoring, dancewear, corsetry, historical mens and womenswear,
finishing and handwork), and costume crafts (millinery, fabric modification, molding/casting,
prosthetics and wig styling). You will continue to spend much of your time in the
laboratory working on actual productions, and your responsibilities for each production
will continue to grow.
Third Year
Courses in the final year emphasize preparation of each student’s individual portfolio
for entry into the job market. Projects are tailored to best prepare them for the
segment of the market they wish to pursue. The Costume Technology thesis tasks students
to serve as the Costume Shop Manager for one term. Students are responsible with the
daily management of the shop, labor distribution and calculation, interfacing with
stage management and design teams, assuring the flow of costume elements is on target
throughout the build and tech schedule, and communication. Following their assignment,
students create a written document that reflects on their experience, and also includes
physical records of the productions they shepherded through the shops.
Careers
Our Costume Technology graduates are thriving in careers as Costume Technicians, Drapers, Costume Shop Managers, Costume Crafts Artisans, Wardrobe Managers and professors across the entertainment industry. You can see our graduates’ creativity shine in various Broadway and off-Broadway productions, on dance stages, opera houses and in numerous regional theaters across the country. Many also choose to work in film and television, national tours and in a wide variety of other entertainment forms.
Related Concentrations
GRADUATE COSTUME DESIGN UNDERGRADUTE COSTUME DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
