Behind the Designs of UNO's 2025 Theatre Student of the Year

Late one April evening in the Weber Fine Arts Building, Thomas Rowe watched as an actor shed a shimmering “cocoon” coat to reveal a 1920s flapper-style dress with gossamer wings. It was the Caterpillar character’s onstage transformation, and Rowe’s own costume design vision came to life.

For Rowe, a senior at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), this magical moment in Alice in Wonderland represented the culmination of a journey he had never imagined when he left for college just a few short years earlier.

Rowe’s road to this stage was far from direct. From Omaha, Rowe graduated from Westside High School, and began college in 2019 outside of Nebraska. Initially, he intended to focus on psychology and advocacy.

“I wanted to go into queer studies and women’s studies, and was really interested in clinical therapy focusing on trans and queer youth,” he said, noting he had led his high school’s Gender & Sexualities Alliance.

Theater, which he had experience in as a show choir performer, initially seemed to be in his past. Rowe had “sworn off performing” after the demands of high school arts. However, a twist of fate in an intro theatre class pulled him into a backstage role.

A Theatrical Path Reignited

Tasked with earning lab hours, Rowe wandered into the campus costume shop to help with basic sewing tasks. To his surprise, he had a knack for it. After a few weeks of mending hems and adding snaps, the shop manager told him, “you’re kind of good at this.”

Then, in 2020, the COVID-19 struck and changed everything. Rowe returned home to Omaha to ride out the pandemic. Isolated from campus life, he contemplated a new direction. He felt lost and wasn’t sure what his next step would be.

Yet, during that “lockdown year,” UNO offered unexpected opportunities. Rowe got the chance to design costumes for a small, socially distanced production, a “COVID show,” which rekindled his theatrical spark.

At the same time, he learned about the Nebraska Promise, a program making college far more affordable.

“Through the Nebraska Promise, I was able to get accessible tuition,” he said.

With that safety net, Rowe saw a chance to continue both his passions, theatre and psychology, at UNO without financial strain.

By fall 2020, Rowe had transferred to UNO as a double major in Theatrical Costume Design and Psychology, ready to dive back into theatre on his own terms.

Stitching a Community

Walking into UNOTheatre, Rowe found an environment that embraced collaboration, experimentation, and mentorship. He quickly became a fixture in the UNO costume shop, earning a work-study position there.

“I began working as a stitcher, doing alterations from the notes,” he recalled of those early days. Unlike other programs where roles are more rigid, UNO’s program pushed students to wear many hats, sometimes literally.

The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Theater program at UNO required all students to “dip your toe in various different things to have an appreciation for everything,” as Rowe explained.

“Based firmly in the Liberal Arts model, UNO Theatre believes that hands-on experience creates more well-rounded, empathetic, and collaborative artists,” explained Jennifer Sheshko Wood, UNO Theater coordinator and professor. “We encourage students, through their coursework and participating in our productions, to try multiple areas and jobs. Knowing first-hand the impact your work has on others, because you’ve walked their path, is incredibly helpful.”

Over five years at UNO, Rowe had been involved in every UNO Theatre production since 2020, an astonishing run of more than 20 shows in roles ranging from backstage wardrobe crew to costume designer.

“My first show here, I was a designer, and then I did co-design, then assistant, associate, co-designer, and then designer again,” he said, ticking off how he had climbed the ladder on different projects.

He stitched sequins, draped fabric, managed wardrobe changes, and even stepped back into performing for a cameo in a recent play, expanding his perspective full circle.

Such breadth of experience wasn’t by accident, though.

“My goal was to be a well-rounded designer who would be appreciative of the team and understand what resources I needed,” Rowe noted, reflecting on why he had taken on everything from advanced makeup classes to patterning tutelage.

In the costume shop, he earned the title "item draper" as he learned to create garments from scratch under careful guidance. Each role, no matter how small, added a stitch to the close-knit tapestry of his theatre education.

Central to that tapestry were the mentors and faculty who recognized Rowe’s drive. Among them was Jennifer Sheshko Wood, UNO’s costume design professor and UNOTheatre coordinator, and Charlene J.B. Willoughby, who is the costume shop manager, whom Rowe credited for much of his success.

Sheshko Wood had been the faculty advisor for Rowe’s senior capstone and, by Rowe’s account, an inspiring guide. She even took him on a road trip to Minneapolis to visit a warehouse, teaching him “how to act in a fabric shop” and source materials like a pro.

Possibly most importantly, UNO’s theater culture taught Rowe an ethos of teamwork and humility.

"We're doing a group project together, and roles often share the responsibility of moving the design forward. While the costume shop manager oversees the build, the costume designer oversees the design, but it's important to be collaborative and communicative," he emphasized.

In production meetings and workshop sessions, he strove to make every collaborator feel heard. This collaborative spirit served him especially well when he took on the biggest leadership role of his college career, the costume designer for UNO’s spring 2025 production of Alice in Wonderland. It was a capstone assignment that would test everything he had learned, and then some.