Theoni Aldredge, a three-time Tony Award winner for her costumes on Annie, Barnum and La Cage aux Folles, will be among the artisans honored during the Theatre Development Fund Irene Sharaff Awards at a reception at the Marriott Marquis Hotel on Friday, March 22. Presented through TDF's Costume Collection, the awards will bestow upon Aldredge the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Theoni Aldredge has designed more than 200 Broadway shows and has been nominated for a total of 13 Tonys for her designs, including: A Chorus Line, Ballroom, 42nd Street (origional B'way production), Dreamgirls, Gypsy (1989 revival) and The Secret Garden. A selection of the designer's work can be seen in the April Designer Sketchbook in Entertainment Design; in addition, look for more of her sketches on the ED website in the coming weeks.
Recipients of this year's Irene Sharaff Young Master Award are the design team of Gregory Gale and the late Jonathan Bixby, who designed Urinetown in addition to many productions at The Drama Department. Bixby passed away in the spring of 2001. Gale recently designed The Dazzle for the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Paul Huntley will be the recipient of the TDF Irene Sharaff Artisan Award. In the past 25 years, Huntley has designed the wigs for over 150 Broadway productions. On Broadway, he is currently represented by Mamma Mia!, The Producers and Contact, and the new productions of The Elephant Man and Morning's At Seven (which he also designed when they were last on Broadway in 1979 and 1980, respectively).
Legendary costume designer, set designer and photographer, Cecil Beaton, will be honored with the TDF Irene Sharaff Posthumous Award for his stage costume designs. He received four Tony Awards between 1955 and 1970 for his costume designs for Quadrille, My Fair Lady, Saratoga and Coco.
The awardees were selected by the TDF Irene Sharaff Awards Advisory Committee, which is comprised of leading members of the theatrical costume design community. They are Gregg Barnes, Suzy Benzinger, Lana Fritz, Rodney Gordon, Constance Hoffman, Willa Kim, Gary Jones, Kitty Leech, Carol Luiken, Sally Ann Parsons, Martin Pakledinaz, Robert Perdziola, Gregory Poplyk Carrie Robbins, Ann Roth, Woody Shelp, Scott Traugott and Patrick Wiley.
The TDF Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, first presented to the legendary Miss Sharaff in 1993, is bestowed upon a costume designer who over the course of his or her career has achieved great distinction and demonstrated a mastery of the art. The award is presented to a designer whose work embodies those qualities of excellence represented in the life work of Irene Sharaff: a keen sense of color, a feeling for material and texture, an eye for shape and form, and a sure command of the craft. Such a designer's achievement may stem from work for the theatre, opera, dance, or film, or, as was true of Irene Sharaff, from all of them together.
Previous winners of the TDF Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award are Desmond Heeley (1994), Miles White (1996), Alvin Colt (1996), Patricia Zipprodt (1997), Jane Greenwood (1998), Willa Kim (1999), Ann Roth (2000), and Freddy Wittop (2001).
The Irene Sharaff Young Master Award is presented to a designer whose work, beyond being promising, has come to fruition. Previous winners include Gregg Barnes (1994), Toni-Leslie James (1996), Paul Tazewell (1997), Martin Pakledinaz (1998), Suzy Benzinger (1999), Robert Perdziola (2000) and Constance Hoffman (2001).
The TDF Irene Sharaff Artisan Award, which was created in 1999, recognizes an individual or company that has made an outstanding supportive contribution in the field of costume technology. The TDF Irene Sharaff Posthumous Award also created in 1999 to recognize, celebrate and remember those artists who have pioneered the art of costume design, setting the standard for years to come. Previous honorees of the Artisan Award inlude include Ray Diffen (1999), Woody Shelp (2000) and Barbara Matera (2001); previous posthumour awardees inlude Raoul Pene DuBois (1999), Lucinda Ballard (2000) and Aline Bernstein (2001).