Alfred University undergraduate Izzy Wachtel recently won the Jane Childs DTM Legacy Award honoring student designers and technicians who present their work for the first time at the regional Design, Technology, and Management (DTM) Expo, hosted under the auspices of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (ACTF).
Wachtel, a senior majoring in performance design and technology, served as costume designer for Macbeth, which was directed by Performing Arts Assistant Professor of Theatre Jonathan Ziese and performed in Miller Theater in the fall semester of 2025.
She is majoring in performance design and technology.
The Macbeth production led to numerous honors from ACTF, whose representatives had attended the performance in Miller Theater. Seven students, including Wachtel, subsequently attended the January ACTF conference in Columbia, MD. Those students included:
Nkanyiso Dlamini, senior philosophy and theatre major; nominated for acting.
Veronica Burns, sophomore theatre major; nominated for acting.
Friend Holley, junior philosophy major, English minor; alternate nominee for acting.
Shirite Westreich, graduate business student; self-nominated for acting.
Jackie Massey, senior art and design major, performance design and technology minor; nominated for lighting design.
Tristan Duhan, senior theatre major, self-nominated for acting
Additionally, senior art and design major Minerva Miller (minoring also in museum and gallery practices) was nominated for stage management but did not attend the conference.
Wachtel, who grew up in Victoria, TX, says she began sewing as a child, when her mother taught her the craft when she was five years old. In addition to creating costumes for Performing Arts Division productions such as Macbeth, she also has been designing costumes for the Alfred University Dance Theater Show.
In creating costumes for Macbeth, in particular Lady Macbeth’s gown, which included a highly structured, swooping shoulder feature that accented the character’s emotional power, Wachtel says she tried to coordinate costumes “with the world of the play,” working in a collaborative relationship with other members of the Macbeth production. “The gown mimics her personality, which is loud and in charge.”
Wachtel hopes to work in a university costume shop after she graduates from Alfred.
In addition to her success at the ACTF conference, three additional AU students advanced to semi-final rounds: Dlamini, Holley, and Westreich.
Dlamini, of Johannesburg, South Africa, performed in Macbeth as Lady Macbeth, and for ACTF performed a monologue from the play in addition to a scene from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. She plans to attend law school in the fall of 2026.
The character of Lady Macbeth, she says, “is one of my favorite roles. Shakespeare writes her with ambition and was ahead of his time to write a woman like that.”
Westreich, who performed the character Malcom, also appeared as the character “Young Woman” in the play Machinal, directed also by Ziese in 2025. At the ACTF conference, she performed a monologue from Henry VI and acted in a scene from Machinal. Once she receives her MBA from Alfred University, she hopes to work as a project manager in performing and visual arts in addition to pursuing a career as actor and dancer.
Holley, who played multiple roles in Macbeth, including the Porter and King Duncan, also performed in a high school production of the play, playing one of the three witches. Holley also will appear in an Alfred State College production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing Puck, and looks forward eventually studying literature in graduate school.
For now, Holley enjoys performing Shakespeare. “Any opportunity to get my hands on Shakespeare, I’ll take it.”
