Constance Hoffman

Biography

American costume designer Constance Hoffman studied at the University of California and the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

She works regularly with opera directors David Alden (Deidamia and Ercole amante for Netherlands Opera, Queen of Spades for Bavarian State Opera, Der Schätzgraber in Frankfurt, Salome in Lithuania and Pelléas et Mélisande in St Louis), Christopher Alden (Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Santa Fe and La Traviata in Tel Aviv), Keith Warner (Andrea Chénier for Bregenz Festival and The Cunning Little Vixen for Portland Opera), and Robert Carsen (L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Glyndebourne Festival and in Vienna and Tannhäuser for Paris Opéra and in Tokyo). She has collaborated also with theatre artists such as Mark Lamos, Julie Taymor, Eliot Feld, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Opera work includes Grendel, directed by Julie Taymor for the Los Angeles Opera and the Lincoln Center Festival in 2007, Carmen and Salsipuedes at the Houston Grand Opera, The Flying Dutchman at Houston Grand Opera and Los Angeles Opera, and Rigoletto at the San Francisco Opera, Orfee et Eurydice, La Fanciulla del West, L’Etoile, Acis and Galatea, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Paul Bunyan, The Abduction from the Seraglio, and Lizzie Borden all at Glimmerglass/New York City Opera. Her designs for the critically acclaimed Paul Bunyan, Tosca, and Lizzie Borden have been televised.

She has designed for Glyndebourne Festival, Paris Opéra, New Israeli Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Tokyo Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, The Minnesota Opera, The Seattle Opera, The Portland Opera, The Florida Grand Opera and the Virginia Opera.

Hoffman’s costume designs were seen in many New York theatres, including the Roundabout Theatre Company (Mr. Marmalade), Public Theater (Henry VI), Second Stage Theatre (Tiny Alice), Theatre for a New Audience (Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, Richard II, Richard III, Henry VI), on Broadway (The Green Bird, directed by Julie Taymor), and in theatres around the USA.

In addition to her Tony Nomination and Outer Critics Circle Award for The Green Bird, she received the Theatre Development Fund’s Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award, and in 2003, 2007, and 2011 was invited to exhibit her work at the Prague Quadrennial.

She teaches at the Tisch School of the Arts as an Associate Arts Professor and in 2009 won the David Payne Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching.