Arden M. Donnelly
(pronouns: They/Them/Theirs)
I have been working in costume production and design since 2008 and received my MFA in Theater Arts - Costume Technology from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University in 2014. I also hold a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, with concentrations in Theater, Literature, and Women's History, and an A.A.S. in Fashion Design & Merchandising from Gibbs College. While currently based in Jersey City, convenient to the major NYC shops and NJ regional theater, I have worked throughout the Northeast.
I am first and foremost a technician, but my combined background of technical experience and historical and sociological research also allow for a multi-dimensional approach to design. Thanks to an undergraduate education steeped in the avant-garde, I have a particular appreciation for projects that are rough, immediate, and imaginative, and enjoy working with emerging artists. I also design and build for custom clients in the reenactment, cosplay, and live action roleplaying communities. This work has given me an additional appreciation for problem-solving, and for creating garments that tell full stories, through both structure and function.
From 2016 to 2022, I worked as a first hand at Parsons-Meares, Ltd. in Long Island City, cutting and supervising builds for a range of productions and tours, from Hamilton and The Lion King to Disney on Ice and Marvel Live. During the COVID-19 shutdown, I partnered with organizations like Sew the Curve Flat and the Broadway Relief Project to provide masks and surgical gowns for workers who needed them most.
Currently, I work as a draper and adjunct professor at Montclair State University, draping and tailoring for a vast assortment of plays, musicals, and dance productions while teaching a practical class in the costume shop and an introduction to costume design and technology for BA and BFA students. I aim to encourage critical thinking, research skills, and an understanding of the sociopolitical role of dress throughout Western history, as a reminder that a costume is more than just clothing - and even clothing is more complicated than it seems.
I am first and foremost a technician, but my combined background of technical experience and historical and sociological research also allow for a multi-dimensional approach to design. Thanks to an undergraduate education steeped in the avant-garde, I have a particular appreciation for projects that are rough, immediate, and imaginative, and enjoy working with emerging artists. I also design and build for custom clients in the reenactment, cosplay, and live action roleplaying communities. This work has given me an additional appreciation for problem-solving, and for creating garments that tell full stories, through both structure and function.
From 2016 to 2022, I worked as a first hand at Parsons-Meares, Ltd. in Long Island City, cutting and supervising builds for a range of productions and tours, from Hamilton and The Lion King to Disney on Ice and Marvel Live. During the COVID-19 shutdown, I partnered with organizations like Sew the Curve Flat and the Broadway Relief Project to provide masks and surgical gowns for workers who needed them most.
Currently, I work as a draper and adjunct professor at Montclair State University, draping and tailoring for a vast assortment of plays, musicals, and dance productions while teaching a practical class in the costume shop and an introduction to costume design and technology for BA and BFA students. I aim to encourage critical thinking, research skills, and an understanding of the sociopolitical role of dress throughout Western history, as a reminder that a costume is more than just clothing - and even clothing is more complicated than it seems.
