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Research Topics

Set and Costume Design for Performance

Research and Creative Activity:

Tamara Marie Kucheran is a set and costume designer who has collaborated with some of the industry’s top theatre professionals in performance venues across Canada including the Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival, Belfry Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Obsidian Theatre Co., Canadian Stage, Theatre Passe Muraille, Nightwood Theatre, Blyth Festival, and Neptune Theatre.

Tamara received her training from the University of Victoria (BFA with Distinction), the National Theatre School of Canada (Scenography), and the University of Guelph’s School of English and Theatre Studies (MA).

Tamara’s creative practice uses extensive historical research coupled with innovative visioning and memorable design for musicals, opera, plays within as well as outside the classical cannon, and new contemporary theatre work. She has devised sets and costumes for a variety of theatre spaces and scales of production – from an outdoor back alley to the country’s largest stages. Tamara designed the set and costumes for the world première of Late and the Canadian premières of Black Medea and Intimate Apparel (all for Obsidian Theatre in Toronto). In 2019 she designed the set and costumes for the Canadian regional première of The Color Purple at Neptune Theatre. Tamara is currently collaborating with SimWave VR as the costume designer for Macbeth VR Experience. Part game, part immersive digital theatrical experience, this innovative project utilizes new technologies to creatively engage students with Shakespeare’s work.

Tamara’s creative and research-based design work has been critically recognized by awards committees including the Ontario Arts Council (recipient of the prestigious Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design, 2017), the Victoria Theatre Critics’ Choice Awards (Best Set Design), the Sterling Awards (nomination for Outstanding Costume Design), and the Dora Mavor Moore and Robert Merritt Award juries (Outstanding Costume Design, plus multiple nominations for Outstanding Set and Costume Design). While at the Stratford Festival Tamara received a Tyrone Guthrie Award and was a recipient of the Ian and Molly Lindsay Young Design Fellowship.

Tamara’s artistic philosophy examines the importance of our visual understanding; how we see and respond to what we see as individuals, as a collective audience, and as a broader society or culture. Tamara’s teaching philosophy is rooted in her passion for theatre and mentorship. Her teaching credits include Sessional, Lecturer, and Guest Artist Instructor positions at The National Theatre School of Canada, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Victoria, Off the Wall Stratford Artists Alliance, and Michigan State University.

Select professional design credits include Costume for The Real McCoy (Blyth Festival), ´¡Ã©°ù´Ç±è´Ç°ù³Ùé±ð (Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario), How He Lied to Her Husband and Man of Destiny (Shaw Festival), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Stratford Festival); Set for Serving Elizabeth (Stratford Festival), Honour Beat (The Grand Theatre), Peter Pan (Neptune Theatre); and Set & Costume for Escape to Margaritaville (Theatre Calgary), Elf the Musical, The Color Purple (Neptune Theatre), Salt Baby (Belfry Theatre), The Penelopiad and Cabaret (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Intimate Apparel (Obsidian Theatre Company, Canadian Stage, Citadel Theatre), and Fanny Kemble (Stratford Festival).

Tamara is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada | IATSE Local ADC659.