Melissa L Gilbert

Melissa is a third year MFA candidate in Costume and Scenic Design (secondary) at the University of Iowa. Previous Iowa Credits include "Makeover" a new musical inspired by the lives of Mary Kay Ash and Estee Lauder Written by Darrah Cloud, Music by Kim Sherman, Directed by Nick Demos. Other Iowa credits include "Four Stories" part of the UIowa New Play Festival, "She Stoops to Conquer" and "Quiet, Witches." "Order, Now," "The Designer," and "Luck of the Irish"

In July and August of 2014 she completed a summer research project in England which includes a tailoring course at the Arts Univsersity Bournemnouth and working with Clary Salandy at the Mahogany Mas Camp on Notting Hill Carnival. She was awarded three grants to fund her summer: The SIF Summer Professional Development Grant, the Eric Ulfers/Margaret Hall Graduate Study Abroad Grant through the Theatre Department and the Stanley Graduate Award for International Research through the University of Iowa.

Originally from Bullhead City, AZ Melissa has had a lifelong passion for theatre and performance. She discovered her love for costuming during her undergraduate years at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. After receiving her BFA in Theatre: Costume Design she spent the next year at the Olney Theatre Center in Maryland working as an intern. In the summer of 2011 she worked at the Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont before moving to Lynchburg, VA to the position of Costume Shop Manager/Main Stage Designer at Randolph College where she also taught Costume Design, Costume Lab, sat in on Senior Seminar and BFA Colloquium.