About

B Christine Mc Dowell has spent the last thirty-ish years involved in professional and academic theatre, including teaching/design positions at The University of South Florida, The College of William and Mary, and SUNY New Paltz, before becoming the costume and set designer at Bates College in 2005.  After completing her MFA in design at the Yale School of Drama in 1991 she began her regional design career, including 5 years as the resident designer for The Virginia Shakespeare Festival, costume and set designs at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, SoHo Rep and other New York Off-Broadway and dance venues, as well as The Public Theatre in Lewiston, Portland Stage Company, and the Theater at Monmouth.  Christine also spent four years touring internationally as a staff member for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, and a year working as a freelance costume professional in London for various West End and European companies. Her most recent Shakespeare experience has been as the resident designer for Shakespeare South Africa, a touring company that visits communities in The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal where Shakespeare is a rare commodity.  Other international design projects have taken her to Japan and Sri Lanka, where she worked with a Bates graduate on a film—using life-sized puppets— highlighting the plight of displaced minority women during and after the civil war in that country.  Her areas of academic research—above and beyond design—often center around historical clothing and material culture.  In addition, she is a member of the exhibition committee at Museum L-A in Lewiston, which focuses on local history and industry.