Howard Tsvi Kaplan
Costume Designer

With a successful career as a costume designer for opera, theater, dance, and circus, Howard Tsvi Kaplan’s work has been seen throughout the country. While he is currently the resident costume designer for the Sarasota Opera, his work has also frequently seen with Baltimore Opera and Kentucky Opera. In the theater, he has designed for Asolo Theater, Olney Theater, and also served as the resident designer for the Alley Theatre in Houston. He has also been the principal designer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Clown College.

Howard just completed his eleventh season as resident costume designer for The Sarasota Opera. Noted productions include Die Fledermaus, Ariadne Auf Naxos, Attila, May Night, Alzira, The Pearl Fishers, Hansel and Gretel, and La Rondine. He is currently engaged in designing their 2009 season which includes Barber of Seville, Elixir of Love, and L’Amico Fritz.

His recent endeavors include Man of La Mancha for the Olney Theatre (for which he was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award); Mikado for the Pittsburgh Public Theatre; Maria Stuarda, Siege of Corinth, La Boheme, and Tosca for the Baltimore Opera; Hay Fever and Born Yesterday for Asolo Theatre for which he received the Sarasota Handy Award for Outstanding Costume Design; Ernani for Opera Boston, Constant Wife and Three Days of Rain for the Westport Playhouse both directed by Joanne Woodward; Cosi Fan Tutte, Marriage of Figaro, and Rigoletto (Kentucky Opera), Pirates of Penzance (built by Malabar Limited for the Cleveland Opera ), Sylvia (Cincinnati Playhouse), A Christmas Carol and the world Premiere of Snapshots, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz for Virginia Stage Company, Crash the Curiosaurus (ABC-TV), and A House Divided (Tennessee Repertory).

Howard was the resident designer for the Alley Theatre, where he designed over 25 productions including the American premiere of …Henceforward, written and directed by Alan Ayckborn; the Asolo Theatre where he created the costumes for 22 shows including the world premiere of Horton Foote’s Talking Pictures and the Westport Playhouse with productions including, Perfect Wedding, Don’t Dress For Dinner, and Noises Off.

For twelve years Howard was the principal designer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Clown College. His clown renderings are part of the permanent display of circus design and history at The Ringling Museum of Art - Sarasota, Florida; and Circus World Museum - Baraboo, Wisconsin. His work has toured as part of an exhibit of circus arts to The New Jersey Transit Authority, Ron Lee’s World of Clowns, and museums in New Haven, Seattle, Washington DC, New York City, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Salt Lake City.

From September 2003 - January 2004, The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure, New York featured his work as part of an exhibit of “Working Artists”. The display consisted of 26 of his renderings from theatre, opera, and circus projects; 3 costumes plus an assortment of hand props and masks. In New York, his Sarasota Opera costumes and designs were seen in the Greenberg and Hammer’s display windows, and were part of The Hudson Guild’s exhibit of Theater Artists.

Articles about his work have appeared in Theatre Crafts, American Theatre, Opera News, and The New Yorker Magazine. His renderings are featured in the textbook Costume Design, by Barbara and Cletus Anderson, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.