Wendy Meaden – Professor of Theatre

Associate Dean, Jordan College of the Arts

Wendy is a professional costume designer and draper (pattern maker). She currently mentors students and teaches courses in Costume Design, Fashion History, Mask Work, and Stage Makeup.

Wendy particularly enjoys fantastic collaborations with students, colleagues, professionals, and guests from around the world. Together they explore new ideas about what theatre is, and what it might become.

“I love designing; it’s an immediate, visceral way to reach the heart, mind, and soul. Theatre engages us on many levels, and is the ultimate collaborative communication between writers, directors, designers, performers, characters, technicians, and audience.”

She delights in facilitating the growth of thoughtful, inventive students into professional theatre artists, and is inspired by seeing our students apply their theatre training to areas that are meaningful to them and the world we live in now.

She earned her M.F.A. in Costume Design and Construction at Indiana University - Bloomington, and a B.A. in Theatre from Bates College. She joined the Butler faculty following 10 seasons with Indiana RepertoryTheatre (IRT), where she was the lead draper/tailor. In addition to her patterning work with IRT, she has constructed costumes for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Louisville Ballet, the Huntington Theater, and the film The Best of the Best. She managed costume shops for The Theatre at Monmouth (Maine), the Nickerson Theatre, and Bates College. Wendy’s design career includes works for Indiana Repertory Theatre (IRT), Cardinal Stage Company, ShadowApe, and The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, among others. Several of her designs were included in the exhibit Costume at the Turn of the Century in Moscow (2015) and in the World Stage Design Festival in Toronto (2005).

In addition to teaching and designing at Butler, Wendy is an active member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), the Costume Society of America, the Fashion Arts Society, and Phi Beta Kappa. As a recipient of several faculty fellowships, she has traveled throughout Europe, and to Ghana, where she studied Kente and Adinkra textiles. Wendy is currently conducting research on and writing about masks, and she continues to freelance as a costume designer and maker.

Wendy Meaden

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