Legendary designers Santo Loquasto and Bob Mackie are among the recipients of this year’s TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards. For his achievements as both a costume and set designer, 14-time Tony Award nominee and 3-time Tony winner Santo Loquasto will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Award's special Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design. Acclaimed costume designer Bob Mackie will receive the 2007 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony on Friday, March 23, at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.
In addition to Mr. Loqauasto’s Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement and Mr. Mackie’s TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, costume designer MURELL HORTON will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award; famed theatre craftsman/designer KERMIT LOVE will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award; and ROUBEN TER-ARUTUNIAN, the famed designer and director, will be named the winner of the TDF/Irene Sharaff Posthumous Award.
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 2007 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards, who were selected by the TDF Costume Collection's Advisory Committee. The TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards are presented through Theatre Development Fund's Costume Collection.
SANTO LOQUASTO (Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement) has designed the sets and/or costumes for 58 Broadway productions. A 14-time Tony Award nominee, he has won the coveted award three times: The Cherry Orchard (1977 – costumes), Café Crown (1989 – scenic design) and Grand Hotel (1990 – costume design). Some of his more recent Broadway productions have been: Movin’ Out (scenic design), A Touch of the Poet (costumes and scenic design), Three Days of Rain (costumes and scenic design), Shining City (scenic design) and The Times They Are A-Changin’ (scenic and set design). On film, he has collaborated with Woody Allen on 24 films. His costume designs for Zelig (1983) and production designs for Radio Days (1987) and Bullets Over Broadway (1994) received Academy Award nominations. In the world of dance, he has designed works for Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Agnes DeMille, James Kudelka, Mark Morris, Helgi Tomasson and David Parsons. One of the most prolific artists working in the theatre, Mr. Loquasto is represented on Broadway this spring with Prelude to a Kiss (scenic design); Inherit the Wind (costumes and scenic design) and 110 in the Shade (costumes and scenic design). He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2004.
BOB MACKIE (TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award) Costume and fashion designer Bob Mackie is a nine-time Emmy Award winner. His name is synonymous with television design, but his contributions to theatre and film are considerable. His theatrical credits include: Moon over Buffalo and Putting It Together, both starring Carol Burnett; Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public; Minnelli on Minnelli; Lorelei with Carol Channing; and the revival of On the Town with Bernadette Peters and Phyllis Newman. Bob also designed Pennies from Heaven, Lady Sings the Blues and Funny Lady, all of which earned him Oscar nominations. Additionally, he designed the costumes for Broadway shows on television, including Once upon a Mattress starring Carol Burnett, Gypsy starring Bette Midler; Carousel; Brigadoon; Of Thee I Sing; and Kismet. His inventive and memorable designs have helped raise entertainers like Diana Ross, Elton John, Ann-Margret, Carol Channing, Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Bette Midler and Cher to iconic status both onscreen and off.
MURELL HORTON (TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award) works in theatre, opera, dance and fashion, but is generally most known for his design work at Washington, DC’s Shakespeare Theatre. He has been nominated three times for the Helen Hayes Award for his work there: Camino Real starring Joan Van Arc (2001), Hedda Gabler starring Judith Light (2002), and Lorenzaccio with Robert Cuccioli (2006). In 2005, Murell designed Lysistrata at the New York City Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. At Manhattan’s Pearl Theatre Company, he has designed costumes for The Barber of Seville, The Guardsman, Cymbeline, The Chairs and Venice Preserv’d; and both scenery and costumes for Richard III, The Miser, and The School for Scandal.
KERMIT LOVE (TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award) Almost everyone age 2 and over is familiar with the work of Mr. Kermit Love. For many years, he worked with the Muppets and is largely responsible for the look of some of Sesame Street’s best-known characters. Jim Henson designed the idea for Big Bird, but it is Mr. Love who built much of the character and refined and improved the way Big Bird looks and works. He also built Mr. Snuffleupagus for Sesame Street and created the Snuggle Fabric Softener Teddy Bear, as well as the characters for the TV Series The Great Space Coaster (1981-86). Born in 1916, his earliest experience in costume design began with dressing marionettes as a child. In his early 20s, Mr. Love began a succession of survival jobs assisting costume designers, such as Rose Bogodonof and Kate Drain Lawson. He went on to design costumes several Broadway productions and countless dance productions over the years. As well as teaching at the Pratt Institute, Columbia University and the University of Hawaii, he has created characters for 22 foreign versions of Sesame Street. Mr. Love has been instrumental in nurturing and encouraging the talent of a great many puppeteers and puppet builders, and his contributions to Jim Henson’s Muppet Empire are world-renowned.
ROUBEN TER-ARUTUNIAN (TDF/Irene Sharaff Posthumous Award) was born on July 24, 1920 in Tiflis, Russia. A scenic and costume designer, he first designed costumes in 1941 for the Berlin State Opera Ballet. In 1951, he moved to the United States and in 1957 became a U.S. Citizen. His first Broadway credit was as costume and scenic designer on George Abbott’s 1957 hit, New Girl in Town, starring Gwen Verdon. Over 20 Broadway credits followed including Donnybrook! (1961 – scenic design) and The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (1964- costume and scenic design). He won a Best Costume Design Tony Award for the 1959 production of Redhead starring Gwen Verdon. He was nominated for four other Tony Awards: Advise and C
Tickets
