Meet the Team
Carol Wood has a varied career path. With an MA in linguistics, Carol spent 20 years in that field teaching and researching. The switch to costumes professionally started with smaller theaters in California and landed her at San Francisco Opera as Assistant Draper where she worked for 11 years. After a few years as Costume Director at Middlebury College, Carol has been the Costume Director at Utah Opera since 2023.
Milivoj “Mili” Poletan, Utah Opera’s talented Tailor, started working in the fashion industry straight out of high school. Showing talent, he was promoted up through production and for 10 years he produced patterns and factory production samples and fashion lines. He then took a degree specializing in textiles for the fashion industry. Adventures took him to Switzerland where he tailored for 2 years before returning to Bosnia to act as line supervisor in a suit company. Mili has been Tailor at Utah Opera from 2002 to the present.
Marcos Ambriz got his first job stitching and building crafts at a college costume shop in Southern California at 16 and hasn’t looked back. After spending 5 formative years in the costuming department at the Disneyland Resort he shifted his focus from the more administrative and operational aspects of costuming to building the pieces he’d been putting into parades. During this time he built pieces for Disney, Universal, Fox, Sony, and others. After a post-pandemic hiatus in costume Marcos has returned to his passion in a completely new state and a different branch of costuming with the Utah Opera where he is the Costume Rentals and Collections Manager.
Julie Porter has been an artist and maker since elementary school. After spending 20 years as an entrepreneur, Julie was volunteered to help her daughters with their high school theater shows. The theater bug hit and after doing set painting for a few years, Julie returned to school for a BA in technical theatre in addition to her BA in general art. Upon graduating, she has been working as the Crafts Artisan / Milliner since 2023.
Abby Gehring earned a degree in Apparel Design and Construction at BYU-Idaho and has spent the past five years immersed in the costume world. With a deep love of history and historical fashion, she enjoys weaving research, creativity, and craftsmanship together to help tell stories on stage. Being part of the collaborative process of opera—where every stitch contributes to something greater—is one of her favorite parts of the job.
Kathryn Wieland graduated from BYU–Idaho’s apparel program and has been lucky enough to turn her love of costumes into a career. She’s worked in shops supporting both dance and live theatre productions, and in 2024 she joined Utah Opera as a part-time intern. Since then, Kathryn has grown with the company, moving from Stitcher to Wardrobe Supervisor, and now serves as the Assistant Tailor. She’s passionate about the artistry of costuming and enjoys the challenge of helping each production shine through detail and design.
Amy Fernelius has been stitching with Utah Opera for the past few years. As Stitcher, we have the opportunity of benefitting from her fine hand and precision eye for detail.
Mallory Goodman holds an MFA from the University of Victoria, and a BFA from Utah Valley University with a focus in costume and set design. She is currently working as the Costume Rentals & Collection Manager at Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. Creating visually stunning elements on stage bring her immense joy, and she loves being a small part of this process for the Utah Opera, and operas around the country!
Spencer Smith graduated with honors from Southern Utah University, earning his Bachelor’s of Science in Theatre Arts with a dual emphasis in costume and performance, and a double minor in Shakespeare Studies and English Literature. He’s worked at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and at the SUU Costume Shop as a costume craftsman for a total of three years, with his crafts work earning him recognition as a Thunderbird Artist of the Year Finalist in Spring of 2025. As a self-described jack-of-all-trades, Spencer has found joy and fulfillment in pursuing any endeavor within the performing arts. Branching from the world of fabrication into the wide scope of rentals, Spencer is settling comfortably into his role as the Costume Rentals & Collection Assistant Manager at the Opera Production Studios.
Kelsey Nichols most recently came from West Valley Arts in West Valley City, UT where she was the shop manager and resident designer. She received her M.F.A. in costume design from Indiana University and has been actively working in theatrical costume design and construction across Northern Utah since graduation in 2016 including for Hale Centre Theatre, The Ruth, and Pioneer Theatre Company. In her free time, she has taken up cobblery and is learning to make her own shoes.
Dusty Stutsman Terrell has served as Charge Scenic Artist for Utah Opera since 2017. She has also painted for Ballet West, Pioneer Theatre Company, Theatre Under the Stars, Central Utah Ballet, and Lagoon. Previously, she held Charge Artist positions at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Riverside Theatre in Florida. Dusty holds an MFA in Scenic Design/Scenic Art from the University of Minnesota and has taught design and technical theatre at Oklahoma State University. Her work includes scenic designs for ASF’s The Beaux Stratagem and the world premiere of Poodleful at Riverside, as well as scenic art for companies including the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Music Theatre of Wichita, and VStar Entertainment Group (painting for Sesame Street Live and Dragon Tales Live). Follow her on Instagram @dustyscenic or on Flickr at flickr.com/photos/dustykaystutsman/.