Carrie Robbins, one of Broadway’s best-known costume designers and a Penn State graduate, will give a talk and participate in a free question and answer session on Tuesday, April 21 from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m in the Playhouse Theatre.

Robbins graduated from the College of Arts and Archictecture in 1964. Since then, she has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumna and has created costumes for more than 30 Broadway shows, numerous operas, dozens of regional and touring productions, and the wait staffs at the Rainbow Room and Windows on the World. Among the shows she has designed are “The Threepenny Opera,” “White Christmas,” “Agnes of God,” “Frankenstein,” “Yentl,” and “Death in Venice.” Robbins also designed the cast’s attire for the 1985-86 season of “Saturday Night Live.”

After receiving her undergraduate degree from Penn State, Robbins moved on to Yale University to pursue a master’s degree in set design. However, she ended up graduating with a degree in costume design. Her first job after graduating was designing the costumes for the Broadway version of “Grease.” Money was so tight for Robbins, the pink poodle on Sandy’s skirt was snipped from the bathmat in her apartment.

Robbins earned a Drama Desk Award for her costume designs and one of the musical’s seven Tony nominations. Two years later, she earned a second Tony nomination for her work on “Over Here!” She then began a second career as an instructor at New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, where she is now a master teach of costume design. Robbins has received numerous honors including the 2012 Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Theatre Development Fund.