Mallory Prucha is an Associate Professor of Costume Design/Technology, having received early tenure and promotion at the Texas Tech University, School of Theatre & Dance, where she has served as Associate Director of Academic Affairs/Curricula, and currently serves as and Head of Design/Technology/Management. She is also the Coordinator of Strategic Initiatives for the TTU J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts.

A multi-faceted Fine Artist, she is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829, IATSE and serves as National Vice Chair for Design Technology and Management for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Mallory is a certified Composite Sketch Artist for Law Enforcement through Stuart Parks Forensics Associates and works for the Lubbock Police Department on an as needed basis.

Mallory’s practice ranges from traditional fine arts to design for theatrical production. Her research agenda is focused on the application of the arts in non-traditional contexts, including use of theatre to augment training efficacy for first response, medical, and disaster relief training exercises. She has developed partnerships regionally with TTU Health Sciences Center, TTU Veterinary School, and the City of Lubbock, in which her intersectional work training standardized patients and moulage artists has helped to train thousands of future service providers. Her commitment to forwarding a STEAM agenda has garnered many awards, including the Texas Tech Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research and the TTU President’s Award for Engaged Creative Activity.

She received an MFA in Costume Design from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film. She also holds an MA in Theatre Arts and a BA in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She has also taught at California State University-Chico, Mesa Community College, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and Iowa Western Community College.

She has spent over a decade working in professional theatre for companies like Utah Festival Opera, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, Nebraska Shakespeare, Nebraska Repertory, Black Hills Playhouse, Southwest Shakespeare, Bilkent University, and CENARTS in Mexico City in capacities of Costume Designer, Cutter/Draper, Craftsperson, Dramaturg, Make-Up Artist, Scenic Charge Artist, and consultant.

Mallory works as a professional sidewalk chalk artist, recognizing the importance of accessibility of the arts and making-in-place. She also is a decorated medallic artist, winning the Westminster Mint International “Green Coin” Design contest and has designed the highest honors for excellence for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. She has illustrated 8 volumes of poetry for Dr. Toni Poll-Sorenson, among other contributions to theatrical texts.

Recently she was awarded the KCACTF Gold Medallion, the highest honor from the organization, celebrating her contributions as both an artist and educator. During her time at TTU, she has been awarded the TLPDC Diamond Award, President's Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Award, as well as a President's Leadership Institute Fellowship, and more.

Visit "Portfolios" for samples of her work. Please contact her with questions, comments and inquiries on professional contracts and commissions, and follow her on social media for live updates!

My approach to teaching is one of synthesizing intensity, investigation, instigation, inspiration, integrity, a process of building vocabulary, and dogged hard-work. Through both solid course design and meeting individual student’s needs and helping them to identify their unique strengths, I seek to inspire life-long-learners and self-motivated artists.

I believe that one must first lay a solid foundation of information, establishing the vocabulary for the coursework ahead. It is paramount that students be given tools to encourage critical thinking and inquiry as a basis upon which to grow both creatively and intellectually. Terms, images, and explication of conceptual relationships are cornerstone to art, design and technology, but do not become relevant until students are challenged through expression, research, and introduction to and refinement of practical application. It is through rigor that students are able to build their own creative frameworks.

As an educator, I like to emphasize providing comprehensive information within a well-defined structure and aim to leave students wanting to know more through stressing the importance of self-motivation. Thus the classroom becomes a safe laboratory, an environment in which students push my understanding alongside their own, as free exchange of ideas and concepts elucidate the medium.
Substantial life-long-learning cannot begin in a setting that provides limited horizons. Likewise, impactful learning cannot take place without encouraging creative experimentation. My greatest aims are to facilitate critical, excavative thinking and analysis, to lead the trek on an exploration to the diverse edges of humans “being” and to foster an experience where students can freely explore the living creation of theatre and art in a way that helps them to free their voices.
This prepares them for the challenges that lay beyond graduation, which are relayed through sharing of my professional experience in the industry.

I teach because it is a critical component of who I am as an artist. I alone cannot fully express the beauty and richness that surrounds me; I need to be a part of a collaborative organism that seeks to inspire and expand vision and cultivate the artist’s seed, which hides inside every individual- the very beating heart of the academic institution. Collaboration, much as in theatre, empowers the learning process through sharing and exchange.

I find no greater joy than in helping individuals succeed and to pave the highways of their own futures. Whether through encouraging civic engagement, connecting students to internships, employment or exposing them to the array of ways in which they can use their skills or implement their vocabularies, I see my role as one that facilitates a student’s ability to succeed beyond graduation, not just as artist but as citizens. The measure of success becomes not one of a student’s capacity to do one thing well, but in their ability to continue to challenge themselves. Successful artists are conscientious, dynamic, professional, and inquisitive.

I find that my work does not stop when a class is dismissed. I remain as a constant voice of empowerment, inspiration, a reminder of fundamental values, and one that is always ready to continue to challenge a student to seek to connect their work to a broader audience.

Art functions at its best when it is accessible to all. The creation and sharing of art is a venture of synthesizing intensity, investigation, instigation, inspiration and integrity. It is a universal language that can communicate beyond all boundaries and thusly should not be yielded with a heavy hand, but should uplift, express and celebrate the richness of the human experience.

When asked to pinpoint my approach, I cannot help but to reply that I take all approaches. It is integral that I explore all media and techniques to constantly grow.

The focus of my recent work has been devoted to Costume Design, a field that facilitates daily art-making. Each design begins as a central thematic idea, which is and illuminates the connected visions of playwrights, directors and theatrical artists. More than “dressing the parts,” my role is to act as an artist-translator, relating stories to broader audiences.

In all aspects of life, I seek to live artfully; making things along the way to express the beauty of the journey and delighting in the ability to share it with others, whether through artifact or through educating.