Melanie Parks, Associate Dean

Melanie ParksE-mail: mparks@niu.edu
Phone: 815-753-8374
Fax: 815-753-6296

Melanie Parks is the Associate Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Northern Illinois University. Prior to her appointment as Associate Dean, Ms. Parks served as a tenured faculty member in the NIU School of Theatre and Dance where she taught costume design and served as the school’s Undergraduate Advisor.

Ms. Parks’ costume designs have been seen in action at Lifeline Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Co., Thirteenth Tribe, Mordine Dance Co., DanszLoop Chicago and the Moscow Art Theatre School. Some of her NIU credits include: The Weir, The Nutcracker Ballet, Le Corsair Ballet and L’ Histoire du Soldat. She has received two Chicago Joseph Jefferson Award nominations and one After Dark Award for the musical Lizard Music with Lifeline Theatre.

She has been a guest artist-in-residence with Ohio University’s School of Dance, designing their Faculty Winter Concerts from 1990-2012. As the resident costume designer for the Organic Theatre Company some of her credits include: The Naked King, Theophilus North, The $30,000 Bequest (stage and film versions), The Dressing Room, The Secret Agent,Bobby Gould in Hell, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Police and Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol. She also designed costumes for the film Hogtown with 9:23 Films.

In addition to her work as the Acting Associate Dean and as a costume designer, Ms. Parks is the director of the NIU summer theatre arts camps for junior and senior high school students.