ELISE PETRUCCI

Shop Staff

Serves as Project Lead, Lead Tailor, and First Hand.
She is an I.A.T.S.E. Local 769 member and holds a BFA in Costume Technology from The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Elise has been building costumes for Chicago’s performing arts scene for fifteen years, with credits at companies like the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Joffrey Ballet, Broadway in Chicago, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, and the Court Theatre. Her work has also made it to the screen, including projects like Mary Queen of Scots, Lovecraft Country, Fargo Season 4, and Night Sky. Recent national credits include The Metropolitan Opera, Disney, The Kennedy Center, Virgin, The Muny, and Milwaukee Ballet.

As a kid, Elise mostly wanted to be a cute dog, but after realizing she was always going to be a human, she dreamed of becoming a writer. Costume making turned out to be her calling for storytelling. Like writing, it’s about building character, setting tone, and using technical details to bring a vision to life. Costuming is a language, and she tells stories through fabric and fit, shaping garments to help artists fully embody their roles.

Elise values teamwork and collaboration in the shop. As a Project Lead, she guides complex projects from paper to stage. She is drawn to big builds, big visions, and big projects. She thrives in the shared energy of a team taking on large-scale productions, where everyone is in motion together.

A proud career milestone for Elise was seeing her work on stage at one of the world’s leading opera houses. That moment validated years of hard work, skill, and dedication she has poured into her craft.

If you gave her a time machine, she would head straight for Chicago at the turn of the 20th century—a rapidly growing city, the birth of the skyscraper and the Prairie School, and public transit buzzing with promise. She’d join a garment workers union and maybe fight a cop. The Second City is her favorite city, and she would love to see it become what it is today.

Her advice to those entering the field? "As you’re starting out, be open to different types of work. You may feel something is not exactly what you had planned, but you can learn a lot about yourself by working outside of your comfort zone, and you’ll learn a lot about the industry by working in different positions. Trust your skills and flexibility, you may find yourself thriving in an area you never thought to try before!"