Rate My Professor Anne Medlock

Anne Medlock-Ely serves as Professor of Costume Design and Head of the Department of Art, Theatre and Dance in the Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts and Humanities at West Texas A&M University. She has been a faculty member since 2006, the year she earned her Master of Fine Arts from Kent State University. Before and during her tenure at WTAMU, Medlock-Ely designed costumes for professional and educational theatres in Illinois, Colorado, Ohio, New York, and Texas. Her design portfolio includes productions such as Cabaret, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Madness of George III, By the Bog of Cats, and Urinetown: The Musical. At WTAMU, she developed the institution's costume curriculum from the ground up and designs costumes for multiple mainstage productions each season. She also advises students in costume design, wig and makeup design, wardrobe, and serves as the department adviser for the Theatre Design and Technology B.F.A. program with an emphasis in costume, hair, and makeup.

Medlock-Ely teaches Costume Design, Costume Technology, Stage Makeup, and Introduction to Theatre courses. Her scholarly interests focus on costume history, social history, gender studies in relation to dress, and fabric modification and construction. A member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) and the Texas Educational Theatre Association (TETA), she has earned recognition for her contributions, including the Outstanding Costume Design award for the production of Ada at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region VII in 2020. In 2021, she received the Special Academic Affairs Appreciation Recognition for leading the Faculty Senate amid COVID-19 challenges. Appointed department head in 2022 following Stephen Crandall's departure to direct the outdoor musical Texas, Medlock-Ely has helped elevate WTAMU theatre productions to national acclaim, as seen in awards for Alice by Heart where she collaborated on costumes. She has presented public lectures, including the brownbag talk From the Plains to the Stage at the WTAMU Museum, fostering greater appreciation for regional theatre history and design.