Elaine Kauffman

Resident Costume Designer

Elaine first joined the Civic staff in 1998 as our Costume Designer. She left to create her own custom clothing design business, Elaine K Designs which she has run for the past 18 years. She returned to the Civicas Costume Designer in 2018. She graduated from WMU with a degree in Fashion Design and has over 25 years of professional costume design working at almost every theatre in the Kalamazoo area including the Barn Theatre, 3-D Touring Productions, WMU Dance Dept., WMUOpera, Kalamazoo College Theatre Dept., Farmers Alley Theatre and many other freelance costume design projects. One of her favorite costuming experiences was creating the “creature costume” for a horror movie filmed in Kalamazoo. Outside of the theatre, Elaine enjoys the art of cheese making!