Denise Umland

Denise Umland started her career over 30 years ago working as a stitcher in the Maryland/DC area for Theater on the Hill’s summer stock, and costume designed and shop managed at McDaniel and Goucher Colleges. She then started working as an over hire at Olney Theatre Center for the Arts (Olney, MD) and quickly moved up to Assistant Costume Shop Manager, then to Costume Shop Manager, and eventually becoming Costume Shop Manager at Round House Theatre (Bethesda, MD) and Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA). Denise has worked several seasons as Assistant Costume Shop Manager and First Hand at Wolf Trap Opera Company, and First Hand/Stitcher at Sarasota Opera and was Costume Director at Florida Grand Opera (Miami, FL). Denise has also served as Wardrobe Supervisor for two Nutcrackers, the first being Olney Ballet School using the costumes from the Washington National Ballet’s Mary Day’s costumes, and more recently, the Santa Barbara Festival Ballet which employs several principal dancers from the San Francisco Ballet and the Dance Theater of Harlem. In the Baltimore/DC metro area, Denise was a costume designer working at many of the smaller theaters as well as a company member of Faction of Fools, a commedia dell’arte company in residence at Gallaudet University who casts Deaf students with professional actors (some of her favorite designs were for Hamlecchio, Our Town, and A Christmas Carol).