After spending eighteen years working in a factory building ECUs (electronic control units) in Wisconsin, Deb O decided to go to Marquette University where she received her undergraduate degree in theatre design with a minor in studio art and art history. She then went on to receive her MFA in Theatre Design at Yale School of Drama. Deb O’s extensive scenography training and range of experiences as well as her background in folk art, dance, gymnastics, clowning and mask making have lent themselves to an innovative approaches to the creation of unique theatrical events. Deb has enjoyed intimate, long-term collaborations with theater directors Tamilla Woodard, Brian Mertes, Alex Harvey, Stephen Brackett, GT Upchurch, Melissa Kievman, Lee Sunday Evans of C Town, Mia Rovegno, Jess K Smith, Jen Wineman and dance-theatre makers Dan Safer of Witness Relocation, Tami Stronach Dance, Sam Pinkleton, and Diane Vanderhei and Tom Thoreson of Footworks Dance Company. With director Brian Mertes and The Lake Lucille Project, Deb has devised and created large-scale, environmental designs for day-long performances of each of Chekhov’s great works. With playwright/producer Beau Willimon, directors Brian Mertes and Alex Harvey, the project moved to a giant warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn for an epic environmental staging of Lanford Wilson’s Balm In Gilead. Deb O is a member of the Wingspace design collective. She was a founding member and co-artistic director of a site specific theater company Artbarn. She taught at NYU’s Tisch - Playwrights Horizons Theater School for 8 years and at Brown University. She has given master classes at Marquette, Fairmont University, Meredith College. She has been featured twice at the Prague Quadrennial, and has received numerous American College Theater Festival Awards including Best Designer of the Year. In 2013, the Red Hook abandon grain factory production of Enemy of the People was chosen as one of the 10 best theater productions in New York. She was nominated for a critic choice award for the set design of Lesson From Aloes at Z Below in San Francisco, CA.