Lisa Streett-Liebetrau, Costume Designer

Lisa Streett-Liebetrau, MFA, Assistant Professor, Freelance Designer

After receiving my M.F.A. in Costume Design from Brandeis University, I began my teaching career at Gettysburg College, where I also managed the costume shop, supervised student crews and designed costumes and makeup for three to five Owl & Nightingale productions a year. I freelanced at two other theatres during this time as well. From there I moved on to Virginia Tech, as head of Costume Design in the undergraduate and graduate programs. I taught Costume Design I, Costume Design II, Design Lab, Intro. to Theatre, Stage Makeup, Costume Crafts, and many Independent Studies to Undergraduate and Graduate MFA students. I then moved back to Pennsylvania to teach at Dickinson College, where my husband, Jon Liebetrau, and I both worked in the Theatre and Dance Department. We left Carlisle and moved to Wilkes-Barre, where my husband accepted a tenure track position at Wilkes University, where he is now tenured and is the Chair of the Division of Performing Arts-Theatre, Dance and Music.

Currently, I serve as the Costume Designer at Wilkes University, where I also teach classes in Costume Design and Stage Makeup in our undergraduate BA and BFA program.

In addition to an academic career, I have enjoyed freelancing at some wonderful professional theatres: Peterborough Players (NH), Totempole Playhouse (PA), Allenberry Playhouse (PA), Open Stage (PA) and the Eichelberger Performing Arts Center (PA).

For 15 years I have served as the Founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit for grieving children, Camp Koala. I created this arts-based program to help other grieving kids, in memory of my sisters Michelle and Heather Streett, who were killed in a car accident in 1989. We have grown to offer grief support to hundreds of children in three locations in Pennsylvania. My skills as a designer and an executive director have served me well in both of my career paths.

I am the mother of two wonderfully talented, funny and uniquely kind children, Victoria and Max, and four pampered house cats. My hobby is collecting and selling vintage clothing online, on ETSY and Thrilling.