Legendary costume designer Albert Wolsky and world renowned scenic designer Ming Cho Lee are among the 2010 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, April 23 at 6:30pm at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street). Two-time Academy Award-winner Albert Wolsky will receive the 2010 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design, and Tony Award-winning scenic designer and educator Ming Cho Lee will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design.
In addition to Mr. Wolsky's TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award and Mr. Lee's Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design, costume designer Alejo Vietti will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, and famed theatre craftsman/designer John David RIDGE will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award.
During the ceremony, as a special memorial tribute to legendary designer Randy Barcelo, there will be the screening of an original 15-minute film on his life, created by designer Suzy Benzinger and theatre director DREW Scott Harris.
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 2010 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.
ABOUT THE AWARDEES:
Albert Wolsky (TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award) was born in Paris and immigrated to the United States at age 10. He lived in New York City and graduated from The City College of New York and began his career in New York theatre, receiving his first solo Broadway design credit for the play Generation, starring Henry Fonda. Other stage credits include Sly Fox, starring George C. Scott; The Sunshine Boys; Joseph Papp's production of Hamlet in Central Park; and Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, starring Meryl Streep. His most recent Broadway credits were the recent revivals of The Country Girl and Sly Fox. He has twice won the Academy Award® for All That Jazz, and Bugsy. In a career that encompasses more than 70 films, Mr. Wolsky also received Academy Award® nominations for Sophie's Choice, Toys, The Journey of Natty Gann, Across the Universe and Revolutionary Road. His recent work includes Charlie Wilson's War, Ask the Dust, Jarhead, The Manchurian Candidate, Road to Perdition, Maid in Manhattan, Runaway Bride, Galaxy Quest, You've Got Mail, Red Corner, Lucky Numbers, The Jackal, The Grass Harp and Duplicity.
Mr. Wolsky's first project with filmmaker Paul Mazursky, Harry and Tonto, led to a prolific, 11-film relationship, including Next Stop, Greenwich Village; An Unmarried Woman, Moscow on the Hudson; Down and Out in Beverly Hills; and Enemies: A Love Story. He first worked with Bob Fosse on Lenny, starring Dustin Hoffman, later designing the costumes for Fosse's All That Jazz and Star 80, Fosse's last film. Wolsky's other credits include Grease, Manhattan, The Pelican Brief, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Little Murders, The Jazz Singer, The Falcon and the Snowman and Crimes of the Heart. In 1999, The Costume Designers Guild honored Albert Wolsky with their first Career Achievement Award.
Ming Cho Lee (Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design) is one of the foremost set designers in America today. His extensive credits include work in opera, theatre and dance. Born in Shanghai, Mr. Lee attended Occidental College and UCLA. He has worked with many leading American dance companies, including Martha Graham, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Eliot Feld Ballet, Jose Limon and Pacific Northwest Ballet. From 1962 through 1973, he was the principal designer for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. He has designed sets for opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera. He has also designed for regional theatres including Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Guthrie Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, and for Broadway. Internationally, Mr. Lee has designed productions for Covent Garden (London), Hamburgische Staatsoper, Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), Royal Danish Ballet, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (Taipei), the Hong Kong Cultural Center and Buhnen Graz (Austria). His numerous awards and distinctions include a Tony Award (for K2), an Obie for sustained achievement, New York Drama Desk and New York and Los Angeles Outer Circle Critics Awards, three honorary doctorates, awards for long-term achievement from six major theatre and opera organizations, membership in the Theatre Hall of Fame, and the Mayor's Award for Arts and Culture from New York City. His work has been shown in two separate retrospectives at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and in Taipei. As an architectural consultant, Mr. Lee designed theatres for Joseph Papp's Public Theatre and the State University of New York at Purchase. He holds the Donald Oenslager Chair in Design and is the Chair of the design department at the Yale University School of Drama.
Alejo Vietti's (TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award) credits in New York include: Nightingale (Manhattan Theatre Club), Rooms, Grace (MCC), Make Me a Song, Tryst, Roulette, The Last Sunday in June, 16 Wounded, 2 X Tennessee, The Wau Wau Sisters, Servicemen, Five Flights, Measure for Measure, Of a White Christmas. He has designed regionally at: Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Arizona Theatre, Asolo Rep, Barrington Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, Colorado Ballet, Florida Stage, Ford's Theatre DC, Goodspeed, Guthrie Theatre, Hangar Theatre, Hartford Stage, Longwharf , Metrostage, NY Stage & Film, Northlight, Pasadena Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Co, Pittsburgh Public, Rockland Opera, San Diego Rep, Saint Louis Rep, Signature Theatre VA, Theatreworks Hartford, Westport Country Plahouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Donetsk Opera Ukraine. Additional credits include Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Boom'A'Ring and Stephen Schwartz's opera, Séance on a Wet Afternoon. Upcoming: The 39 Steps (Alley Theatre), Annie Get Your Gun (Goodspeed), and Rossini's Il Turco in Italia (Wolf Trap).
