Judith Dolan to be New Associate Dean in Arts and Humanities

By Barry Jagoda I December 19, 2005

Judith Dolan

Judith Dolan, professor of design in the UCSD department of theatre and dance, has been named associate dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities.

In making the announcement Dean of Arts and Humanities Michael A. Bernstein said, "Judy Dolan is a highly respected scholar and practitioner who brings superb qualities of leadership, creativity and judgment to this new and important position. She will share with me management of our departments and faculties and will have particular responsibility for a number of our special units, such as the University Art Gallery, our widely respected Center for Research in Computing and the Arts and will take up many academic, communications and development projects of importance to the whole division. I will also look to Judy for assistance in academic personnel review."

Judith Dolan holds a Master of Fine Arts in costume design and a double-track Ph.D. in directing/design and theater history/aesthetic theory from Stanford University. Professor Dolan has designed for theatre, opera, film and television. Among her many works is the Broadway production of Candide for which she received the 1997 Tony Award for Best Costume Design.

Professor Dolan will continue to teach Costume Design in the Department of Theatre and Dance and to mentor graduate students in their production design assignments. Currently, the Department of Theater and Dance at UCSD ranks third in the country for graduate M.F.A. theater studies.

In accepting the new position, Dolan said, "I am truly delighted to be working with Michael to help focus the great strength we have in UCSD Arts and Humanities. I am looking forward to bringing my academic and professional artistic background to the many opportunities we have with our outstanding departments and brilliant faculties."

Her designs have also been seen in numerous other theater companies in the United States and abroad including The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Theatre Clwyd in Wales, The Old Vic in London, The Kennedy Center, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., The Goodman Theatre, The Alley Theater, the New York City Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. Her designs include sets and costumes for Gombrowicz's Meditations on Virginity, a cooperative production with UCLA School of Theatre, for the 2004 International Theatre Festival in Poland. Recent work includes the award-winning Broadway musical Parade by Alfred Uhry with music by Jason Robert Brown, directed by Harold Prince; The Glass Menagerie, starring Elizabeth Ashley for Hartford Stage; and her most recent Broadway play collaboration, Hollywood Arms, by Carol Burnett and Carrie Hamilton. Currently, she is working on the world premieres of Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, for the Mark Taper Forum and Lovemusik, a new musical incorporating the work of Kurt Weill to be directed by Harold Prince.

Dolan will take up her new position January 6, 2006.