Shannon Jackson transferred to the UNO theatre department after spending her freshman year as an English major at UNL. Her first semester here a faculty member heard she could sew, and encouraged her to try costume construction. She did, and something clicked. Since then she has built costumes for UNO, the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, and Opera Omaha, as well as designing for the Brigit St. Brigit theatre and UNO’s student theatre group FAUST. For last year’s FAUST production, she built a five foot tall walking gym sock out of chicken wire and velour. This year she will be designing props for their production of Raised in Captivity. Shannon can also be seen onstage at UNO, and her role as Maria in this fall’s Man of La Mancha earned her nominations for both an Omaha Entertainment Award and the Irene Ryan Scholarship competition, for which she will be competing this January at the American College Theatre Festival. Shannon will graduate next December with a degree in theatre and a minor in sociology, with plans to eventually go to graduate school for acting or non-traditional costume design.
