Biography...
Shanna Foster Philipson is a costume designer — and more. Since her introduction to professional theater at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Philipson has worn many professional hats in and out of live theater, experiences that enrich her current collaborations with a treasure box of lived insight that comes from the classroom, the clinic, and the keyboard.
In 2018 Shanna was delighted to design costumes for Chicago Opera Theatre’s spring production, director Amy Hutchison’s Donizetti double bill of Pigmalione and Rita. The Donizetti pairing received particular praise from Opera News for the design team (Foster Philipson, William Boles, Ted Nazarowski, and John Boesche), while others called it an “enchanted matched set” and “an opera lover’s dream”. Shanna’s costume work was called out as “chic”, “spot on” and “period perfect”.
Shanna is a frequent collaborator with Amy Hutchison (Houston Grand Opera and Chicago’s Lyric Opera, etc.), and their close association allows Shanna to invest her full self into these productions — variously as designer, researcher, and assistant director. In 2017 Shanna designed and assistant directed the "notable" Chicago premiere of the chamber opera AS ONE (Chicago Fringe Opera) for Hutchison. Other past Hutchison/Foster Philipson collaborations include the premiere of Ricky Ian Gordan and Stacey Tappan’s song-cycle, Once I Was, a Lillith-leaning Dido and Aeneas (Elgin Opera), a distinguished operatic dedication to the civil rights movement,The March, and an historical triumph — the first fully staged production of William Still and Langston Hughes’ tale of the Haitian Revolution, Troubled Island performed as intended with a full African-American cast. For this historic first, Troubled Island was named 2013’s “Most Important Event in Chicago Classical Music” by beloved classical music critic Andrew Patner.
Other recent design work includes the "long-overdue" 2017 Chicago premiere of the rarely performed Kurt Weil/Paul Green anti-war operetta, Johnny Johnson (Chicago Folks Operetta), and collaborating with costume designer Ann Foley (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) on the short-lived ABC TV show MIND GAMES.
In design assistant or production roles, Shanna’s worked at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Repertory Theater of St. Louis, St. Louis Conservatory of Music (CASA) Opera Scenes Project for Young Artists, Colorado Shakespeare Festival (three seasons), Shakespeare Theater (DC), Hartford Stage, The Alley Theater, Houston Grand Opera, the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Theater, and touring productions for the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music Opera Program, as well as work for TWU Local #769.
Outside of theater, Shanna’s passion is for arts and literature education, writing, and the needs of twice-exceptional and non-conforming young people. For a decade she held a secondary education (English Ed.) teaching certificate, and taught or mentored hundreds of young people — from at-risk middle school youth through college students — including an unforgettable year teaching literature, introductory rhetoric, and dramatic lit at Thaddeus Strassberger’s magnet school alma mater, Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, OK.
At the keyboard, she’s written 80k words of two novels and about hundred freelance assignments. She is also the creator/author/illustrator of The Beaker Kids books, a comic book and reference guide still in use by educators, psychologists, and therapists who support young people with social-sensory-emotional regulation needs.
But her most daunting role has been as parent to a non-conforming and twice-exceptional teen/artist who now occasionally lets her ink his comics.
Shanna is a former USITT Student Chapter President and proud graduate of Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts in Saint Louis.
In 2018 Shanna was delighted to design costumes for Chicago Opera Theatre’s spring production, director Amy Hutchison’s Donizetti double bill of Pigmalione and Rita. The Donizetti pairing received particular praise from Opera News for the design team (Foster Philipson, William Boles, Ted Nazarowski, and John Boesche), while others called it an “enchanted matched set” and “an opera lover’s dream”. Shanna’s costume work was called out as “chic”, “spot on” and “period perfect”.
Shanna is a frequent collaborator with Amy Hutchison (Houston Grand Opera and Chicago’s Lyric Opera, etc.), and their close association allows Shanna to invest her full self into these productions — variously as designer, researcher, and assistant director. In 2017 Shanna designed and assistant directed the "notable" Chicago premiere of the chamber opera AS ONE (Chicago Fringe Opera) for Hutchison. Other past Hutchison/Foster Philipson collaborations include the premiere of Ricky Ian Gordan and Stacey Tappan’s song-cycle, Once I Was, a Lillith-leaning Dido and Aeneas (Elgin Opera), a distinguished operatic dedication to the civil rights movement,The March, and an historical triumph — the first fully staged production of William Still and Langston Hughes’ tale of the Haitian Revolution, Troubled Island performed as intended with a full African-American cast. For this historic first, Troubled Island was named 2013’s “Most Important Event in Chicago Classical Music” by beloved classical music critic Andrew Patner.
Other recent design work includes the "long-overdue" 2017 Chicago premiere of the rarely performed Kurt Weil/Paul Green anti-war operetta, Johnny Johnson (Chicago Folks Operetta), and collaborating with costume designer Ann Foley (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) on the short-lived ABC TV show MIND GAMES.
In design assistant or production roles, Shanna’s worked at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Repertory Theater of St. Louis, St. Louis Conservatory of Music (CASA) Opera Scenes Project for Young Artists, Colorado Shakespeare Festival (three seasons), Shakespeare Theater (DC), Hartford Stage, The Alley Theater, Houston Grand Opera, the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Theater, and touring productions for the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music Opera Program, as well as work for TWU Local #769.
Outside of theater, Shanna’s passion is for arts and literature education, writing, and the needs of twice-exceptional and non-conforming young people. For a decade she held a secondary education (English Ed.) teaching certificate, and taught or mentored hundreds of young people — from at-risk middle school youth through college students — including an unforgettable year teaching literature, introductory rhetoric, and dramatic lit at Thaddeus Strassberger’s magnet school alma mater, Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, OK.
At the keyboard, she’s written 80k words of two novels and about hundred freelance assignments. She is also the creator/author/illustrator of The Beaker Kids books, a comic book and reference guide still in use by educators, psychologists, and therapists who support young people with social-sensory-emotional regulation needs.
But her most daunting role has been as parent to a non-conforming and twice-exceptional teen/artist who now occasionally lets her ink his comics.
Shanna is a former USITT Student Chapter President and proud graduate of Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts in Saint Louis.
