Legendary scenic and costume designer, Michael Yeargan (currently represented on Broadway with Fiddler On The Roof and The King And I), and costume designer Susan Tsu are among the 2016 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, May 20, at 6:30pm, at the Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street). Tsu was selected to receive the 2016 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design and Yeargan will receive the Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design. The awards are presented through Theatre Development Fund’s Costume Collection.
Additionally, costume designer Suttirat Larlarb (currently represented on Broadway with Waitress and Finding Neverland) will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, and authors and designers Liz Covey and the late Rosemary Ingham will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award.
“As we reviewed the list of awardees, the committee realized that in addition to their personal artistry, there was another common denominator,” said Stephen Cabral, Director of TDF’s Costume Collection which curates the awards, and Chair of the TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards Voting Committee. “They all were currently teaching or had taught their craft at prestigious universities – doing the service of paying it forward to the next generation of designers. That’s what makes these awardees so special.”
During the ceremony, as a special memorial tribute to legendary costume and scenic designer Dorothy Jeakins, there will be a screening of an original 15-minute film on her life, created by designer Suzy Benzinger.
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 2016 TDF/Irene Sharaff awardees.