Deborah M. Dryden

Photo by: Jenny Graham

Deborah considers the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to be her artistic “home”, having had the privilege of designing for the company for 39 years. She was the Resident Costume Designer from 1998-2014 and currently holds the title of Resident Costume Designer Emerita.

Deborah Dryden has also designed costumes for numerous theatres nationwide 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 designed the costumes for the Broadway production of Robert Schenkkan’s “All The Way” which was originally produced with her design at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge,MA.

Deborah is a Professor Emerita of Design at the University of California-San Diego, where she taught for twenty years. While there she was instrumental in creating the undergraduate and graduate programs in costume design.

Throughout her career, Deborah developed her interest in fabric painting and dyeing for the theatre. Her work in that field resulted in the publication of a book on the subject, “Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre” (Heinemann Press). She continues to explore new techniques in surface design and has offered workshops in fabric painting and dyeing for the theatre at universities and theatres nationwide.

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.

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

Deborah Dryden is currently retired from theatrical costume design and is enjoying further explorations in fabric dyeing and painting. She currently resides in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, Rob Hirschboeck, and their loyal border collie.