Ana Kuzmanic is a professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University. She is Yugoslav-born, Chicago-based costume designer for theatre and opera, exhibiting nationwide, on Broadway, Off Broadway, and internationally.
She made her Broadway debut with the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning play August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. Her acclaimed costume design was an amalgamation of American realism, absurdism, and the Gothic.
Kuzmanic's other Broadway credits include Desire Under the Elms with Brian Dennehy, Carla Gugino, and Pablo Schreiber; Superior Donuts with Michael McKean; and The Minutes with Tracy Letts (upcoming). Off Broadway credits include The Jacksonian with Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, and Bill Pullman.
Ana designed numerous world-premiere plays in collaboration with Tony Award-winning directors Mary Zimmerman, Robert Falls, and Anna D. Shapiro. Regionally, Ana designed costumes for theatre productions at the Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie, McCarter Theatre Center, Washington Shakespeare Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Steppenwolf Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The House, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Geffen Playhouse. Internationally her costume design work was produced at Sydney Theatre Company in Australia, National Theatre of London; Cannon Theatre in Toronto, Canada; and BITEF Theatre in Belgrade, Serbia.
Kuzmanic's opera design work includes productions for The Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Dallas Opera, Los Angeles Opera and the Metropolitan opera premiere of Eurydice, composed by Matthew Aucoin with the libretto by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Mary Zimmerman.
A native of Former Yugoslavia, Ana earned her undergraduate degree in Costume and Fashion Design from Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade and an MFA in Theatre Design from Northwestern University.
Ana teaches courses in costume design, computer arts, drawing / creative process, and collaboration.
Education
- MFA Stage Design, Northwestern University
- BA Costume and Fashion Design, Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, Serbia
Recent Awards and Honors
- Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design for Camelot, Washington, DC (2018)
- San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award nomination for Best Costume Design for Treasure Island (2017)
- Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Costume Design for Treasure Island (2016) and Steadfast Tin Soldier (2019)
- American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Award nomination for Best Costume Design for The Jacksonian (2014)
- Joseph Jefferson Award for Costume Design for Comedy of Errors (2008)
- Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Costume Design for August Osage County (2008)
- Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award (2007)