Faculty/Staff
Shura Pollatsek
Assistant Professor of Costume Design and Technology
http://www.shuracostumedesign.com
Professor Shura Pollatsek came to Western Kentucky from New York City, where she worked professionally as a costume designer and in many other aspects of costumes. She designs professionally in theater, dance, film and television. In New York, she designed costumes for the Pearl Theatre, the Storm Theatre, HERE, and many others. She did historical costumes for The Duel and Woodrow Wilson for PBS’ the American Experience, and The Kingdom of David and Andrew Jackson, also for National PBS. The latter will air in January 08. She has also been assistant costume designer at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and on the Broadway shows All Shook Up and Thoroughly Modern Millie. She has worked making costumes for Papermill Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and for many productions in New York. She has also been a guest artist at several colleges, and has worked in children’s theater.
Shura holds an MFA in costume design from New York University and a BA from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She is a member of United Scenic Artists. Shura teaches Costume Design, Costume Construction, Advanced Costume Construction, Rendering for Theater Design, and Make-up, as well as costume-related independent study classes. In addition Shura designs and coordinates departmental Mainstage productions, advises student designers, and helps supervise and execute the actual costumes. (Yes, she really does help sew!)
She hopes to bring out students’ creativity and problem-solving skills, whether they continue in theater or in other pursuits.
Jennie Ingram
Costume Shop Supervisor
Jennie Phyllis Ingram is a costume designer and technician who received her B.A. in Theatre Design and Technology from Plymouth State University, and her M.F.A. in Costume Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During her career Jennie has had the pleasure of serving as the Costume Shop Manager for The Barnstormers Theatre, The Peterborough Players, and the Tony Award winning Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her favorite costume designs have included Sweeney Todd at Plymouth State University, The Imaginary Invalid, and Nine at the University of Illinois, and A Doll House for the Peterborough Players. In her spare time Jennie enjoys captaining her very own pirate ship. Yarrr!
Student Workers
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Dustin "the Vest Maker" Bell is a senior from Madisonville, KY working on his B.A. in Theatre with a Musical Theatre minor. He has been working in the costume shop for one year now and loves it. After college he hopes to get a job performing or as a stitcher or first hand in a costume shop somewhere. He enjoys sharks with laser beams on their heads and is kept around the shop as the resident expert for survival in case of a Zombie Apocalpyse. He would also like you to know that he is a cyborg as his pancreas can tell time and yours can not. The cake is a lie, but his love is not.
Grace attended the Youth Performing Arts School and duPont Manual High School in Louisville, KY where she majored in Theatre Design and Production at which point she also interned at Stage One Children's Theatre and Pleiades Theatre Company. Since entering Western's Department of Theatre and Dance in Fall 2007, she has served as designer for many Children's Shows and Studio Shows, and also as assistant designer for A Night of Short Operas. She enjoys working with different types of media and making costume crafts, one of her life ambitions is to learn how to make shoes. Grace is also pursuing a History minor, which comes in handy with her interest in the design and costruction of historical costumes. She is a member of the WKU Honors College and the theatre fraternity Alpha Psi Omega. In her free time she enjoys making crafts, watching a variety of movies and listening to Harry Potter audiobooks.
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Geneva has not yet submitted a bio, but she claims to have the mystical power of flight.
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Bethany Nelson is a transfer student from Western Michigan University and is planning to graduate in the spring of 2010. She is majoring in Visual Arts with a concentration in Weaving and a minor in Performing Arts Administration. Bethany has been involved in theater for 10 years and has done everything from stage managing and directing to lighting and of course, costuming. Bethany can often be found roaming around campus with random scraps of fabric and yarn clinging to her clothes, leaving a trail of glitter and thread in her wake. She enjoys reading and writing, but not so much the arithmetic, and is in the process of writing her first novel. Bethany loves her job and can't wait to open her own theater house one day!
Dustin Bell
Grace Delahanty
Geneva Ged
Bethany Nelson
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