[4] Her first Broadway costume designs were for the musical Sunday in the Park with George (1984), in collaboration with Patricia Zipprodt,[5] for which they received a joint Tony Award nomination.
[12] Her costume designs for Red, Hot and Blue were used in productions at the Goodspeed Opera House, East Haddam, Connecticut in 2000 and the Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, New Jersey in 2001.
[15] She designed costumes for several productions at the Arena Stage, Washington, DC, including Three Sisters (1984),[16] Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along (1990)[17] and Let Me Down Easy (2010).
[18] Her Off-Broadway work includes, at Playwrights Horizons Lobster Alice (2000), at the Public Theater Road Show (2008), and at Second Stage Theatre Let Me Down Easy, by Anna Deavere Smith (2009).
"[22] She designed the costumes for the US National tour of Dr. Dolittle (2005); Hould-Ward stated that she "drew inspiration from the horse's mouth, so to speak; she found original copies of the Hugh Lofting books that were simply illustrated by the author himself.
She designed the costumes for the Los Angeles Opera production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2007), starring Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone.