Assistant Professor, Design and Technology
Bio
David Arevalo is a Texas-born, Queer Mexican costume maker, designer, artist and educator. His research is rooted in lived experience and explores how costume can communicate story, identity and cultural memory beyond the written text.
Working across costume design and costume technology, Arevalo combines rigorous technical practice with embodied and material research. His work considers making, itself, as a dramaturgical process: the ways clothing is constructed, altered, worn and experienced become tools for understanding character, identity and the body.
Arevalo’s transdisciplinary practice challenges the traditional separation between costume design and costume making, approaching them instead as interconnected forms of creative and scholarly inquiry. His work is informed by generational and embodied knowledge as well as his professional training as a dressmaker and tailor, while also embracing emerging technologies and experimental modes of making.
Through this intersection of design, craft, research and collaboration, Arevalo creates costumes and processes that center the body, material knowledge and the lived experiences of the people who wear them.
What do you enjoy most about being a part of UT Theatre and Dance?
I love the feeling that I have returned home to a place that shaped the artist I am today. The ability to invest and invigorate the best and brightest of Texas' students at this public institution is something that I am immensely proud of.
What is your favorite thing about Austin?
Tacos, the endless blue skies, and the constant breeze that makes the heat seem almost pleasant sometimes.
Areas of Expertise
Costume Technology, Costume Design, Tailoring, Draping, Costume Crafts, Digital Rendering
Classes
Draping, Tailoring, Intro to 3D Modeling and Printing for Costumes, Millinery, Couture Techniques
Recent Works
Cutter/Draper (selected):
The Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, NM - 2014, 2016-2018, 2024, 2026.
Previous Costume Designs (selected):
Furlough's Paradise - Geva Theatre, Rochester, New York; Aztlan - The Magic Theatre, San Francisco, California; Private Lives - The Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas; What the Constitution Means to Me - Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Selling Kabul - Northlight Theatre, Chicago, Illinois; MACHO Sensibilities - Bard College Dance Program, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Laughs in Spanish - Stages, Houston, Texas and TheatreSquared, Fayetteville, Arkansas; Don’t Let the Pigeon Sing Up Late! - The Kennedy Center and Washington National Opera.
David Arevalo is a Texas-born, Queer Mexican costume maker, designer, artist and educator. His research is rooted in lived experience and explores how costume can communicate story, identity and cultural memory beyond the written text.
Working across costume design and costume technology, Arevalo combines rigorous technical practice with embodied and material research. His work considers making, itself, as a dramaturgical process: the ways clothing is constructed, altered, worn and experienced become tools for understanding character, identity and the body.
Arevalo’s transdisciplinary practice challenges the traditional separation between costume design and costume making, approaching them instead as interconnected forms of creative and scholarly inquiry. His work is informed by generational and embodied knowledge as well as his professional training as a dressmaker and tailor, while also embracing emerging technologies and experimental modes of making.
Through this intersection of design, craft, research and collaboration, Arevalo creates costumes and processes that center the body, material knowledge and the lived experiences of the people who wear them.
What do you enjoy most about being a part of UT Theatre and Dance?
I love the feeling that I have returned home to a place that shaped the artist I am today. The ability to invest and invigorate the best and brightest of Texas' students at this public institution is something that I am immensely proud of.
What is your favorite thing about Austin?
Tacos, the endless blue skies, and the constant breeze that makes the heat seem almost pleasant sometimes.
Costume Technology, Costume Design, Tailoring, Draping, Costume Crafts, Digital Rendering
Draping, Tailoring, Intro to 3D Modeling and Printing for Costumes, Millinery, Couture Techniques
Cutter/Draper (selected):
The Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, NM - 2014, 2016-2018, 2024, 2026.
Previous Costume Designs (selected):
Furlough's Paradise - Geva Theatre, Rochester, New York; Aztlan - The Magic Theatre, San Francisco, California; Private Lives - The Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas; What the Constitution Means to Me - Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Selling Kabul - Northlight Theatre, Chicago, Illinois; MACHO Sensibilities - Bard College Dance Program, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Laughs in Spanish - Stages, Houston, Texas and TheatreSquared, Fayetteville, Arkansas; Don’t Let the Pigeon Sing Up Late! - The Kennedy Center and Washington National Opera.
Contact Information
Email address
david.
Website
David Arevalo
WIN 2.156