In the theatre field, where everyone spends time creating fantasy worlds, costume designer Eliza Chugg was as real as they come. Eliza helped on countless theatre projects, both student and professioinal, when the producers needed an 11th hour asssit. A respected professional, she was so involved in the theatre that often she alerted an artistic director about an up and coming actor or made a blunt suggestion to a director about how to improve a show. Eliza would be there if you needed her. She would back you up when you needed that, and she would slap you on the back of your head, if you needed that.

Born Eliza Pietsch in Wilmington, Deleware, Chugg graduated Magna Cum Laude from Barnard College with a Bachelor’s Degree in English. She went on to Australia on a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a Master’s Degree in library science from Columbia University, An intern in the Library of Congress in 1956, she moved to Berkeley the next year where she began an eight year stint as a librarian in the rare books department at the University of California.

Eliza’s designs were most recently seen in San Jose State’s production of Crimes of the Heart (September 1999) and many other shows including Three Sisters (1996), Darkest Part of the Shadow (1993), Prelude to a Kiss (1992), Bullshot Crummond (1987), Terra Nova (1984), Equus (1982), Henry IV: Part I (July 1982), Twelfth Night (1981 Summer), Lysistrata (1980 Summer) You Cant Take it With You, and the Merry Wives of Windsor (Summer 1979), As You Like It and Three Penny Opera (Summer 1978), Jazz and Dance Ensemble, Japan Tour.

The Eliza Chugg Award was established in 1999 by the Theatre Arts Department and is given for Excellence in Artistry and Leadership.