Jess Goldstein, Douglas W. Schmidt & More to Receive 2015 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards

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.

JESS GOLDSTEIN (TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award) has designed costumes for more than 39 Broadway productions including the current revival of On the Town. In 2005, he received the Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play for The Rivals.

Jess's Broadway credits as costume designer also include Mothers and Sons (2014), Orphans (2013), Glengarry Glen Ross (2012), The Columnist (2012), Newsies The Musical (2012), High (2011), The Merchant of Venice (2010), Next Fall (2010), The Homecoming (2007), Cymbeline (2007), Jersey Boys (2005), Brooklyn Boy (2005), Henry IV (2003), Golda's Balcony (2003), Enchanted April (2003), Judgment at Nuremberg (2001), Proof (2000), The Rainmaker (1999), Tartuffe (1996), Inherit the Wind (1996), The Play's the Thing (1995), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1995), White Liars & Black Comedy (1993), Candida (1993), A Streetcar Named Desire (1992), and many others.

He has done extensive work Off Broadway for Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater and more. His work has been seen regionally at Arena Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, Long Wharf Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Stage, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe Theatre, McCarter Theatre, the Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Guthrie Theater.

Jess has also designed costumes for opera and film. He received his B.F.A. from Boston University and M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. He has taught design at Yale since 1990.

DOUGLAS W. SCHMIDT (Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design) came to Broadway as a scenic designer in 1969. Since then, he has worked on more than 50 Broadway productions. He is a two-time Tony Award nominee for revivals of Into the Woods (2002) and 42nd Street (2001), and a three-time Drama Desk Award winner for Into the Woods (2002), Over Here! (1974) and Veronica's Room (1974).

Doug's extensive Broadway credits also include Sight Unseen (2004), The Civil War (1999), Damn Yankees (1994), Smile (1986), Porgy and Bess (1983), Romantic Comedy (1979), The Most Happy Fella (1979), They're Playing Our Song (1979), Runaways (1978), The Robber Bridegroom (1975 and 1976), The Threepenny Opera (1976), The Three Sisters (1973), Veronica's Room (1973), A Streetcar Named Desire (1973), Twelfth Night (1972), Grease (1972) and more.

Off Broadway and around the world, Doug's scenic designs for theatre and opera have been on the stages of The Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Cherry Lane Theatre, Delacorte Theater, Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, the Theatre at St. Clement's Church, La Jolla Playhouse, San Francisco Opera, Forrest Theatre, Center Stage, the Tanglewood Festival, Theatre of the Living Arts, the Guthrie Theatre, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The Old Globe Theatre.

Doug's earliest scenic design works were seen at the Theater at Monmouth Theatre and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in the 1960s.

BRIAN C. HEMESATH (TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award) made his Broadway debut in 2014 as the costume designer for Honeymoon in Vegas. For television, Brian is the Emmy Award-winning costume designer for PBS's Sesame Street and he has worked on select episodes of The Today Show, The Caroline Rhea Show and Saturday Night Live.

Brian previously served as the assistant costume designer to Catherine Zuber for the 2009 Broadway revival of The Royal Family, and his Off Broadway costume design credits include Unbroken Circle (2013) and Disaster! A 70's Disaster Movie Musical (2012). Brian designed costumes and assisted with productions at Paper Mill Playhouse, the Skylight Opera Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, the Judith Anderson Theatre, the Rockwell Theater, Galvin Fine Arts Center, Zachary Scott Theatre, the Human Race Theatre, the Bronx Opera and the Kresge Theatre.

Brian was operations manager for Dodger Costumes Inc. where, under his direction, the shop built costumes for the Broadway revivals of 42nd Street, Into the Woods and more. Brian was also an assistant costumer for the national tour of Titanic.

Brian graduated from St. Ambrose University with a major in theatre and a minor in art, and earned his master's degree at Carnegie Mellon in 1997 before moving to New York City.

GINO BIFULCO - T.O. DEY SHOES (TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award) is a third-generation shoemaker at T.O. Dey Shoes, the company he owns with his brother Thomas. Gino is best known on Broadway for the many productions his shoes have appeared in, including; Aladdin (2014), Kinky Boots (2013), Wicked (2003), Hairspray (2002), Chicago (1996), Rent (1996), Victor/Victoria (1995), Beauty and the Beast (1994), Damn Yankees (1994), The Phantom of the Opera (1988) and many more.

Gino has built custom shoes for Laurence Olivier, Johnny Carson, Billy Idol, Sylvester Stallone, Cher, Liza Minnelli, John Travolta, Mariah Carey and Prince.

Shoes made by Gino cannot be bought off the rack. A customer must be properly measured: first, Gino makes an imprint of the feet to get exact measurement; next, he makes a sand cast to ensure proper balance; finally, he makes a plaster mold and wooden form of both feet.

Gino continues to work the small storefront of T.O. Dey, constructing, repairing and dyeing shoes and boots by hand.

RAOUL PÈNE DU BOIS (Memorial Tribute) began his career designing showgirl costumes for the Ziegfeld Follies when he was 14. He went on to design costumes and scenery for 48 Broadway shows. Raoul won the 1971 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Costume Design for No, No, Nanette and the 1953 Tony Award for Scenic Design for Wonderful Town.

Raoul's theatre credits include DuBarry Was a Lady (1939), Panama Hattie (1940), Lend an Ear (1948), Alive and Kicking (1950), Call Me Madam (1950), Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952, Wonderful Town (1953), Plain and Fancy (1955), Bells Are Ringing (1956), No, No, Nanette (1971) and Irene (1973).

Beyond Broadway, he has designed costumes for ice shows, the Rockettes, Billy Rose's nightclub performers and large-scale spectacle performers. He has also designed sets and costumes for films, and was nominated for an Academy Award in Art Direction for both Lady in the Dark and Louisiana Purchase.

He was born on Staten Island, New York in 1914. He died in 1985 at the age of 72. In 1999, Mr. Du Bois was the first ever recipient of the TDF/Irene Sharaff Posthumous Award, now called the Memorial Tribute. Since then, the Sharaff Awards have grown in prestige and reach, and the awards' voting committee decided to re-honor and re-recognize Mr. Du Bois as the 2015 Memorial Tribute honoree.