Camilla Morrison

Camilla Morrison is a Costume Designer, Draper, Artist, and Teacher who currently serves as a Visiting Instructor of Costume Design and Technology at Virginia Tech, where she brings her extensive expertise in costume design and theatrical arts to the next generation of theatre professionals. Camilla has enjoyed teaching at Radford University, Louisiana State University, and The University of North Dakota, building connections with students and colleagues at each institution.

Camilla earned her Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design and Technology from Louisiana State University and her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Salisbury University in Maryland. Her research and artistic practice centers on devised theatrical works that explore women's experiences and stories as well as the use of innovative methods and materials in Costume Technology. Her interdisciplinary approach combines Costume Design with documentary theatre techniques, creating original works that amplify underrepresented narratives, with artistic investigations focusing particularly on themes of aging, motherhood, relationships, rural storytelling, and regional identity.

In 2020, Camilla was awarded a North Dakota Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, which supported the creation of her devised work Of the Earth: Stories of Women in North Dakota, an innovative project that involved interviewing women throughout North Dakota and translating their collective experiences into avant-garde costumes using theatrical storytelling. She was also selected as an Emerging Artist in the 2019 USITT Exhibited Artists program at the Prague Quadrennial, where her devised work Nightmares Are Dreams, Too was exhibited on an international stage.

Camilla has had the pleasure of designing costumes for professional theatre companies across the United States, including Mill Mountain Theatre, Empire Theatre Company, Theatre B, Black Hills Playhouse, Texas Shakespeare Festival, Serenbe Playhouse, and Hangar Theatre. This rich professional experience continually informs her teaching and artistic practice, helping her bridge the worlds of academic and professional theatre in meaningful ways.

As an active scholar and practitioner, Camilla regularly presents her research at national conferences, including the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), and the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). Her presentations span topics from feminist approaches in theatrical education and intersectional ethics of care in performance communities to innovative costume techniques and the integration of AI in theatrical design. She's honored to serve in leadership roles within the theatre community, including as Vice-Chair for Membership for USITT Southeast Region.

Camilla's work is grounded in her belief that live performance has the power not only to connect and inspire, but also to heal and foster personal growth. Growing up on Kwajalein in the Republic of the Marshall Islands shaped her deep appreciation for identity and community—themes that permeate both her design practice and her work with students. She is particularly drawn to exploring the relationship between people and their clothing, between character and costume. This fascination drives her approach to every project, every student interaction, and her own relationship with clothing and identity.