Design Showcase West (DSW), a nationally recognized exhibition, will celebrate its 10th Anniversary at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) Saturday, June 9, 2012.  Tony® Award-winning costume designer Judith Dolan, this year’s Keynote Speaker, will address the DSW annual gathering of distinguished guests, leaders of industry craft and design guilds and honorees.

Commenting on DSW’s tenth year, TFT Department of Theater Chair, Michael Hackett says, “We are proud of DSW, the student designs presented, the opportunities DSW provides and all it has become since 2002. It takes an enormously collaborative effort only made possible by the generous participation of the film, television and theater design guilds and local unions.  We are truly grateful for their support during our first ten years, as we move forward into the next decade and look to expand our reach internationally.”

DSW was founded in 2002 by then Theater Department Chair Bill Ward along with Alan Armstrong, former Director of the Costume Design Program.

“I am excited for the 10th anniversary. It is wonderful to see the success of the event and to see how far we’ve come. It is a great advantage for students and a great opportunity for the program to get attention from people in the world of design and entertainment, as well as studios,” says Ward.

Earning her Tony® Award for Candide, Dolan’s work on The Petrified Prince, earned her the Lucille Lortelle Award and a Drama Desk nomination. Her costume designs and contribution to her craft has been seen in theaters globally and associated with well-known productions from the finest directors. Dolan has an MFA in Costume Design as well as a Ph.D.in Directing and Design from Stanford University. She is currently Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California at San Diego.
Swarovski, in its continued collaboration with the David C. Copley Center for The Study of Costume Design, will present the annual Swarovski Shooting Star Award for Excellence in Costume Design to TFT MFA Costume Design student Rebecca Guzzi.    “Swarovski is proud to support the Copley Center at UCLA,” said Nadja Swarovski, Executive Board Member, Swarovski Crystal Business. “We are delighted to help graduate students prepare for their careers by investing in a top ranked costume design program that crosses media boundaries.  As a long time supporter of the creativity and innovation of costume and set design for film, stage and television, we look forward to challenging a new group of artistic minds to add sparkle to the stage and screen by using crystal in original and exceptional ways.”
Design Showcase West, held each year in conjunction with TFT Film Festival, is the only national entertainment design showcase on the West Coast. It features the work of students graduating from the nation’s top university design programs, including UCLA, USC, California Institute of the Arts, UC San Diego, NYU, University of Missouri at Kansas City, UC Davis,  University of Texas at Austin, UC Irvine and North Carolina School of the Arts. Exhibits range from costume design to set, sound and lighting design.

Hosting DSW is UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Costume Designers Guild Local 892, United Scenic Artists Local 829 and Art Directors Guild Local 800 host DSW. Entertainment producers, directors and A-list designers looking for new talent attend the DSW exhibition.
DSW Exhibition is open to the public and admission is free.  Doors open at 2:00p.m. on Saturday, June 9, 2012 at UCLA’s Ralph Freud Playhouse.  For more information, please log onto http://www.designshowcasewest.com/.
About UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television:                              
The vision of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television is to serve as a premier global interdisciplinary professional school that develops outstanding humanistic storytellers, industry leaders and scholars whose diverse, innovative voices enlighten, engage and inspire change for a better world. Consistently ranked as one of the top elite entertainment and performing arts institutions in the world, the School offers an innovative curriculum that integrates the study and creation of live performance, film, television and the digital arts. Our distinguished graduate and undergraduate programs include acting, directing, writing, producing, animation, cinematography and lighting design, set design, costume design, sound design, Moving Image Archive Studies, and offers PhDs in Theater and Performance Studies and Cinema & Media Studies. For more information, visit www.tft.ucla.edu

About Swarovski:
The Swarovski story began in 1895 when Daniel Swarovski invented a machine for cutting and polishing crystal. This machine not only revolutionized jewelry manufacturing, it has inspired the worlds of art, design, fashion and cinema for over a hundred years. Today Swarovski is the world’s leading producer of precision-cut crystal and gemstones and operates nearly 2,000 retail outlets in over 120 countries. The company has a rich history of working with internationally acclaimed designers including Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior. Since joining the family business in 1995, Nadja Swarovski has built on this heritage by implementing a series of visionary design initiatives, which have transformed the company’s image, turning crystal into a much desired component in the creative industries. Nadja Swarovski is committed to supporting and celebrating design and the arts by collaborating with both established and emerging designers - including Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Lacroix, Shaun Lean, Tom Dixon, John Pawson, Zaha Hadid, Mary Katrantzou, Marios Schwab, Erdem and Giles Deacon -- challenging them to push the boundaries of crystal use across a fashion, jewelry, stage and screen, art, architecture and design. Visit www.brand.swarovski.com

The David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design:
Endowed in 2005 by a record-breaking gift of $6 million from newspaper publisher and philanthropist David C. Copley, with Oscar-nominated costume designer and scholar and author Deborah Nadoolman Landis as Founding Director, the David C. Copley Center for the Study of Costume Design at UCLA is the first institution of its kind worldwide. Through bold research and a robust program of conferences, exhibitions and film festivals, the Copley Center serves the UCLA community, international motion picture historians, cultural anthropologists and working designers and filmmakers. Areas of emphasis include the history of costume design, genre research, costume illustration as an art form, and the influence of costume design on fashion and culture. For more information contact nrubin@tft.ucla.edu