Eliza Chugg Award - Leadership

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 as a student, and later as a well-respected professional costume designer.

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 seen in San José State’s productions of Crimes of the Heart (September 1999), 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 Can't Take it With You, and the Merry Wives of Windsor (Summer 1979), and As You Like It and Three Penny Opera (Summer 1978).

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