Michaela Petrovich is a costume designer, theatre educator and textile enthusiast based in Berkshire County. Petrovich holds an MFA in Costume Design from University of Washington School of Drama and a BA in “Costume Design: History Theory, and Praxis” from the University of Redlands Johnston Center for Integrative Studies. She is Associate Professor of Theatre at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts, where she currently serves as Interim Chair of the Fine and Performing Arts Department and as a Member at Large for the Faculty Association’s Executive Board. She was awarded the Faculty of the Year award by the Class of 2023 for her resilience and support to students throughout the pandemic.

Petrovich teaches courses in costume design, the dramatic imagination, theatre history and theatrical storytelling. In her six years at MCLA, she has offered over 13 different courses ranging from introduction to theatre to collaboration and theatrical stagecrafts. In Spring 2026, Petrovich co-taught the travel course “Drawing Inspiration” which focused on experiential research for designers on Tudor dress, art and architecture and culminated in a trip to England, where students had the opportunity to spend a week doing observational drawing at the V&A, Hampton Court Palace and around London.

She also designs for the MCLA Theatre season and manages the costume studio which builds and facilitates the costumes for MCLA Theatre productions. She can be often be found creating and exploring myriad theatre production crafts that expand to dyeing, theatrical properties, and puppetry.  When not designing, Petrovich can be found studying and practicing historic embroidery techniques, painting or reading about tudor history.

Prior to joining the faculty at MCLA, Petrovich spent the two years as Visiting Assistant Professor of Scenic and Costume Design at the University of Redlands, where she taught Stage Design Fundamentals, Set Design Techniques and Costume Design Techniques. She also created and taught the topics studio course: “Designing Fantasy”, which attracted a variety of Theatre Arts students (designers, actors and a playwright) as well as students across disciplines (history and creative writing) due to its focus on world building and the role history of dress and architectural styles play in the creation of fantastical realms. She co-taught a May Term studio course, “Designing Doctor Who: The Television Franchise” with Piers D. Britton and former BBC costume designer, June Hudson, as artist in residence.

Before moving into academia, Petrovich spent two years as Staff Costume Design Associate at Seattle Repertory Theatre where she was fortunate to have worked on the new musical, Come From Away, before making it’s debut on Broadway. She also had the pleasure of working with Clint Ramos’ design associate, Christopher Vergara, on the remount of David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim’s revolutionary musical experience, Here Lies Love.