Amanda Downing Carney, South Kingstown, RI, native, entered URI as an undecided major. She states that her advisor encouraged her to take a diverse courses in help her find her niche. She enrolled in Professor David Howard’s costume history class, influenced by the artsy shows she watched on television and memories of her grandmother had taught her to sew. On her first day, Carney was in awe at the career prospects the course proposed. “I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is a job’?” she recalls with a laugh, “I loved how it involved history and being artistic”. Carney fell in love with the small, tight-knit program. After working backstage with the wardrobe department and spending hours sewing in the costume shop, she declared a major in Theatre. She got the opportunity to design Mainstages university productions), and she worked alongside URI Theatre alum and Gamm Theatre artistic director Tony Estrella to design his 2002 production of subUrbia. Carney adds that she not only loved the people in the program and working on productions, but she also took a liking to the method of URI’s Theatre BFA program. “The Theatre program really immerses you in the complete theatre experience,” Carney states.

Carney was in fact the only Costume Design major in her graduating class. After graduating in 2003 with a BFA in Technical Theatre and a concentration in Costume Design, Carney earned a job as a stitcher at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI. She worked her way up the ranks, eventually landing her current position as Trinity Rep’s Costume Shop Director. Carney’s main responsibility is to take the designer’s vision and “translate” it to costuming, while ensuring costumes’ functionality. As she puts it, “It’s like building a house, only with costumes”.

She credits a great deal of her achievements to URI Theatre: “Theatre fosters empathy and the ability to put yourself in others’ shoes,” Carney explains, “[It’s] so collaborative all the time, and you’re constantly solving problems together. You learn how to communicate and listen, how to share, and how to be wrong.” As for advice, Carney has a lot of insight to give. “Don’t take summers off, make connections” she advises, “A lot of people I know started getting internships after graduation, but you have to be all in”. She also brings up a major life lesson taught to Trinity Rep interns. “Be nice to everyone,” Carney states, “because you never know who your boss is going to be. People want to work with people who are easy to work with”. She concludes: “I followed my professors’ advice and have never looked back. I’ve never not supported myself by working in theatre”.

-Written by Chase Hoffman ’21, Writing & Rhetoric and Anthropology Double Major