Western Illinois University: Macomb Campus

Ray Gabica

Professor of Theatre

Office Location: 201 Browne Hall
Office Phone: (309) 298-1318
Email: R-Gabica@wiu.edu

 

 

 

Professor and Head of Costume Design. Ray holds an undergraduate degree in Education (Theatre, French and Mathematics), an M.F.A in Costume and Make-Up Design from Michigan State University. He taught nine years at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay prior to coming to WIU in 1988. Gabica teaches the Costume Design sequences on the undergraduate and graduate levels and Theatrical Make-Up and Visual Concepts for the Stage.

Ray designs from four to six productions a year. Recent designs include the mainstage productions of  1776, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Marat/Sade, Tommy, Rashomon, Our Country's Good, Zorro, and Much Ado About Nothing, and the Summer Music Theatre productions of Meet Me in St Louis, Evita, and The Little Shop of Horrors,  to name only a few of the 48 Summer Music Theatre, 60-plus Mainstage and 15-plus Regional Tours he has designed for Western Illinois University.

While designing four to six productions a year, he has also directed within the Studio Theatre Season. the Regional Children's Tour ( Matthew's Meadow, The Lion and the Mouse, The Tree House, A Tribute to Shel, Free to Be…You and Me ) and the Mainstage Theatre Season ( Hair, Equus, Titanic, Harold and Maude  and Blood Brothers ).  For Summer Music Theatre Ray has directed  Oliver, Something's Afoot, Big, Jekyl and Hyde,  and  Evita . Ray is no stranger to the acting process either, having played roles in The Laramie Project, Pablo Picasso at the Lapin Agile ,  The Grapes of Wrath  and the role of C. S. Lewis in  Shadowland s .

Ray still considers having successfully completed the 630 plus miles of each AIDS RIDES (6 DAY) from Minneapolis to Chicago, five times, as his most significant feat!