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Alexandra Bonds


Costume Designer and Historian
abonds@uoregon.edu
541-346-4194
219 Villard Hall

Courses:
Costume design, costume history, construction techniques.

“My students learn design theory and practice, rendering skills, the cultural context of costume history, patterning and construction. Students who have taken my courses have various jobs in academic and professional theatre, including design, shop management, cutting, stitching, dyeing and wig-making.”

Research Interests:
Asian theatre and costume design

Awards and Accomplishments: 
USA Commissioner and Vice President for International Activities for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, organizing the USA entries for the Prague Quadrennial, International Exhibit of Scenography, 2003, 2007, and 2011. Costume Designs exhibited in World Stage Design, Cardiff, Wales 2013 and in Seoul, South Korea, 2009. Humanities Center Fellowship, Spring 2002. Herb Greggs Merit Award for excellence in writing for the Performing Arts, Theater Design and Technology, 2002. Prague Quadrennial featured costume design displays, 1999, 2003, 2007. Richard A. Bray Faculty Fellow for outstanding contribution to scholarship, teaching and service, UO, 1999.

Publications:

Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture, Second edition. Routledge, January 2019.

Theatre Design & Technology, Design Expo 2018. Photos and description of costume designs for The Father. Summer, 2018.

Portfolio- A Lifetime of Costumery with Alexandra Bonds, Lightning Press, 2016. Monograph retrospective of costume designs.

“Costume Design Gets its Due,” Co-authored with Susan Tsu, Theatre Design and Technology, Winter, 2016.

“Costume and makeup in traditional Asian Theatre,” contributor, “China.” Liu, Siyuan, ed. Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2016.

Jingju. Il teatro cinese nella Collezione Pilone, Museo delle Culture, Lugano- Castagnola, Switzerland, 2014. 20 photographs reprinted from Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture.

“The Visual Language of Dress,” in On Stage: The Art of Beijing Opera. Basel: Museum der Kulturen. Summer 2011.

Performance Dress in China and Taiwan,” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: East Asia, with Dongshin Chang and Elizabeth Johnson, 2010.

Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture, University of Hawaii Press, April 2008.
Nominated for Millia Davenport Award, Costume Society of America
Nominated for Golden Pen Award, USITT
Nominated for International Convention of Asia Scholars ICAS Prize in Humanities

“All the World’s a Pavilion, scenic designs aren’t the only constructs being exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial.” By Randy Gener. American Theatre, September 2007. Interviewed and quoted.

“In Prague, a World of Stage Design,” by Donna and David Kornhaber. New York Times, June 10, 2007. Interviewed and quoted.

“Who’s Who? Hard to Tell at the PQ?” by Arnold Aronson, American Theatre, September 2003, photographs of the exhibits.

“A Costumer Goes to Beijing,” Costume Research Journal, Spring, 2002.

“Surface Design in Jingju Costumes: The Aesthetics and Meanings of Embroidered Imagery in the Beijing Opera,” Theatre Design and Technology, Spring, 2001.

“London Destinations for Costume Lovers,” Costume Research Journal, Fall, 2001.

“China.” Theatre Design and Technology. Fall, 1999.

 “Beijing Opera Costumes ­ discovering the meaning in costumes in traditional jingju.” Theatre Design and Technology, Fall, 1997.

Recent Production Credits:

Costume Design: For University Theatre-The Importance of Being Earnest 2013, Love Will Shake 2012, Rock ‘n’ Roll 2011, Around the World in Eighty Days 2009, A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2006-07 (participating KC/ACTF production); For Willamette Repertory Theatre- Wild Oats 2008, Cyrano 2006.