Name: Janet Gray
Title: Professor of Theatre; Costume Designer
Education: M.F.A., Theatre Design, Tulane University
B.F.A., Theatre, Stephen F. Austin State University
B.A., Plan II - Interdisciplinary Studies Honors Program, University of Texas at Austin
Office: 125 Johnson Hall
Phone: 803/323-3840
E-mail: grayj@winthrop.edu
Area(s): Make-Up, Costuming, Introduction to Production, History of Dress and Décor, Advanced
Stage Make-up, Designing Costumes for Department Productions
Janet Gray, a native Texan, received a B.A. in Plan II - Interdisciplinary Studies Honors Program with a concentration in European History and Dramatic Literature from the University of Texas at Austin. While working at an "entry level" position in the Houston corporate world she became interested in the Theatre, returned to school to take some classes, and never looked back. Five years later she had completed both a B.F.A. in Theatre from Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX, and an M.F.A. in Costume and Set Design from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
Gray served as Resident Set and Costume Designer at New Stage Theatre in Jackson, MS. for ten seasons where she designed costumes and scenery for more than 100 productions. She also taught costuming for two years in the Theatre Department at what is now Truman State University in Kirksville, MO. She has designed costumes and scenery for professional theatres and university theatre departments in North and South Carolina, Missouri, Mississippi and Louisiana. Since 2000, Gray has spent her summers as a Costume Designer for The Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theatre of North Carolina. Over the years she has designed and created costumes for a number of their large musicals and other seasonal productions as well as for several of their YouTheatre productions.
Gray has been on the Winthrop faculty since 1998. She has received five Meritorious Achievement Awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) for her work here. In 2009 she, along with the rest of the production team, received a Winthrop University Presidential Citation for her work on "Anything Goes." Gray was the 2010 recipient of the Kinard Award for Excellence in Teaching, and received the 2011 Educator of the Year Award (Winthrop University) from the York County Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Rock Hill Area Council.
