October Meeting
Our October meeting will be held in a different location and at a differnt time from the usual SARA meetings. Our speaker will be Margaret Mitchell. A costume designer for the University of the Incarnate Word, Ms. Mitchell will give a presentation on Regency fashion: "Dressing and Undressing Your Duke/Duchess."
Please note the following: the meeting will take place on October 20 at 7pm in the Mabee library auditorium at the University of the Incarnate Word, room 115. Ms. Mitchell will have not only slides, but will bring costume examples. If parking is a problem on campus, you can park over on Perry street by Kinkos and walk over to the Mabee library.
For those of you who prefer a meal beforehand, a few of us will be gathering at the La Madelaine on Broadway around 6pm.
Margaret Mitchell has designed costumes or scenery for Incarnate Word Theatre Arts productions for twenty-one years. Ms. Mitchell earned an a B.A. in theatre Arts from Texas Wesleyan College and an M.F.A. in Costume Design and Technology from the University of Texas at Austin. Her professional credits include scenery and costume designs for The Dallas Shakespeare Festival, The Austin Shakespeare Festival, The Zilker Park Summer Musical, Texas Stage, Stage West, and Capitol City Playhouse, and The Classic Theatre of San Antonio. She has also designed in Wellington, New Zealand and she has directed at the Portsmouth Music Hall in Maine and at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts in Vermont. Ms. Mitchell’s design work has represented the United States at the Prague Quadrennial three times. Her work has also been exhibited at the World Stage Design Exhibition in Toronto and at numerous USITT exhibitions, the Semmes Gallery and at the McNay Art Museum. Her costume design work is published in Rebecca Cunningham’s book, The Magic Garment and in Oscar Brockett and Robert Ball’s The Essential Theatre. Her design work is also included in the World Stage Design and Prague Quadrennial exhibition catalogues and in TD&T . She has been a guest tutor at The New Zealand Drama School and she negotiated the sister school agreement between Toi Whakaari and UIW.
In 1991 Ms. Mitchell received the National Costumers Association Award. Her design work has been recognized numerous times locally by the Alamo Theatre Arts Council and by the Austin Circle of Theatres. Ms. Mitchell was honored with the distinguished Moody Professorship at UIW in 2008-2009; she also received the Jasmina Wellinghoff Special Contribution to the Theatre Award in 2008 and the Edward Zlotkowski Faculty Award for Service Learning in 2004. Ms. Mitchell has served on many professional panels at USITT and she is a member of the Scenography Commission and Costume Working Group of OISTAT (The International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians). She has also curated design exhibitions and she has served as a consultant for theatre companies, museum collections and theatre arts programs. With Dr. Oscar Brockett and Linda Hardberger Ms. Mitchell is the co author of Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and the United States published by the Tobin Fund for Theatre Arts and distributed by UT Press. This book received the USITT Golden Pen Award. Note: Photo credit Paul Overstreet.