Susan Tsu

BFA COSTUME DESIGN, 1972
MFA COSTUME DESIGN, 1974

A graduate of both the BFA (‘72) and MFA (‘74) Costume Design programs at CMU, Susan Tsu is an award-winning costume designer who headed the costume programs at Boston University and the University of Texas at Austin before joining the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon in 2003. Her costumes for theatre, opera and television have been seen everywhere from regional LORT theatre stages to international venues. 

Susan has worked from coast to coast at 44 theatres and opera companies, returning frequently to such companies as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Quantum Theatre and Pittsburgh’s own City Theatre. Memorable international productions include the award-winning hit musical “Godspell”, “The Joy Luck Club” – a benchmark collaboration between Chinese and American companies, and “The Balcony” – Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow. Well-known as an international curator, Susan’s own designs have been exhibited at the Lincoln Center Library and McNay Art Museum. She has garnered some of the industry’s highest honors, including being named the 2017 Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Established Artist, the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award and Kennedy Center Medal of Achievement. 

Her work is represented in over a dozen books and countless publications. During a 6-year term on the Board of Directors for Theatre Communications Group, Susan was on the task force that reconfigured “American Theatre” magazine and was a strong advocate for the Free Night of Theatre initiative across America now reaching over 600 cities. At CMU, she has been on the Miller Gallery Programming Leadership Committee; and a wats:ON? Festival organizing partner.