Tony Award-winning costume designer, Jess Goldstein (currently represented on Broadway with Jersey Boys and On the Town), and scenic designer Douglas W. Schmidt are among the 2015 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, May 1, at 6:30pm, at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street). Mr. Goldstein was selected to receive the 2015 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design and Mr. Schmidt will receive the Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design.
Additionally, costume designer Brian Hemesath (currently represented on Broadway with Honeymoon in Vegas) will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, and custom shoe designer Gino Gifulco – T.O. Dey Shoes will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award.
During the ceremony, as a special memorial tribute to legendary costume and scenic designer Raoul Pène Du Bois, there will be a screening of an original 15-minute film on his life, created by designer Suzy Benzinger.
TDF/Irene Sharaff Award honorees are selected by the TDF Costume Collection's Advisory Committee and are presented through the Theatre Development Fund's Costume Collection.
Throughout her long and distinguished career, elegance and an attention to detail were the trademarks of costume designer Irene Sharaff. Miss Sharaff was revered as a designer of enormous depth and intelligence, equally secure with both contemporary and period costumes. Her work exemplified the best of costume design. Such excellence is demonstrated by the winners of the 2015 TDF/Irene Sharaff awardees.