Grace Elizabeth Wilson (she/her) is a costume professional who specializes in crafts work, including millinery, dyeing, distressing, thermoplastics, and foam. Her recent role as the Costume Crafts Artisan for Barrington Stage Company’s 2023 season gave her the opportunity to use these skills and many more. Her dyeing, distressing, and stitching work has also been seen at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. Creative problem solving is one of her favorite parts of building costumes, whether it means making a fedora into a frog or distressing a chemise that has to last through an entire faire season.

Through her BFA program in Theatre Production/Design at Montclair State University, Grace designed or assistant designed many plays and dance pieces. She is comfortable managing budgets, piece lists, rehearsal schedules, and all the other paperwork that keeps a show running smoothly.

Grace was also an English minor and part of the Honors program at Montclair, and her love of learning informs her approach to costuming. She believes that how people present themselves communicates — consciously or unconsciously — a wealth of information about identity, psychology, economics, and social mores. Even the subtlest costume choices have the potential to help create a character and the world in which they live.