Endowment supports CMU theatre (technically speaking)
Theatre faculty member Doris Ramsey laughs at Liz Campbell’s reaction that the gown Campbell created more than 30 years ago for her final Bachelor of Fine Arts project still hangs in the crowded costume shop. This costume – complete with slips, bloomers, corsets, and panniers – has been refit for several productions since and is ready to be adapted yet again.
By Dan Digmann
Liz Campbell proudly holds the unofficial student record for being involved in the most CMU theatre shows ever.
Throughout the 1970s she dazzled audiences in everything from the University Theatre presentation of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum to the Friends of Musical Theatre production of Hey You Guys Quit Fooling Around.
But rarely did CMU theatergoers see Campbell performing.
Instead, what they saw of her theatrical skills – and what led to her record-setting accomplishment – were the costumes and makeup worn by the actors and actresses.
“I have terrible stage fright,” she confesses. “I much more prefer working behind the scenes and being creative with costumes and makeup.”
The 1977 alumna spent countless hours in the Moore Hall costume shop picking patterns, cutting fabric, and sewing costumes as she studied to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts in costume and makeup design.
Campbell noted that the costume shop hasn’t changed much since she graduated, nostalgically pointing out that the bat used in the 1973 production of Dracula still hangs from the ceiling. Even the cutting tables are the same.
This in part led to her establishing a technical theatre endowment with her husband, Kevin,’74 MA ’76, whom she met as an undergraduate student while he was earning his master’s degree in interpersonal and public communication.
“You have so few dollars available in theatre, the money you have is spent on what the audience can see, and there often isn’t much left for the behind-the-scenes equipment and supplies,” Campbell says.
The Ramsey-Valle Technical Theatre Educational Endowment Fund, which the Campbells named in honor of her faculty mentors Doris Ramsey and William Valle, will support technical theatre-related areas in the communication and dramatic arts department. Such areas include the costume and scene shops as well as makeup, lighting, rigging, and audio.
“We would like to see the students have additional equipment, such as a CAD lab for sets and costumes, to use behind the scenes as well as in the classrooms,” Campbell says. “The costume shop pretty much was our hangout when we were at CMU, and we always wanted to give back to acknowledge the impact Doris and Bill had on our lives and the lives of other students.”
Valle retired from teaching technical theatre in 2000. Ramsey still teaches costume and makeup design and says she is honored and grateful for the endowment established by Campbell who, in addition to her place in the CMU theatre record book, has the distinction of being Ramsey’s first student to earn a BFA in costume design.
“Liz was a very good student to have,” Ramsey says. “This endowment will give us the ability to provide students the equipment that we otherwise could only say, ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be nice to have it.’”
After graduation, Liz became a freelance makeup artist, an independent Mary Kay consultant, and a volunteer for numerous productions at the Midland Center for the Arts. She owns Anna’s Aunt Designs, designing and constructing custom clothing for girls and their dolls. Kevin worked for the university in the instructional resources division and then took a position with Dow Corning Corp., where he currently is senior information specialist.
The couple has remained devoted to CMU throughout their lives. In addition to Liz volunteering with the student-run TV show News Central and Kevin teaching a broadcasting class, in 2006 they established an endowment to support the maintenance and upgrade of equipment in the School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts. •
