Photo Flash: Inside The 25th Anniversary TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards

The 25th Anniversary TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards were held last Friday, April 26 at The Edison Ballroom. The honorees were: Susan Hilferty who was presented the TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award by her friends Chita Rivera and Michael Mayer; scenic designer John Lee Beatty who was presented the Robert L. B. Tobin Award by former Sharaff awardee, Jane Greenwood; Miodrag Guberinic who was presented the Kitty Leach Young Master Award by former Sharaff awardee Paul Tazewell, and Rodney Gordon who was presented the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award by Tony winner (and former employee) Cady Huffman. This year's film by Suzy Benzinger was a special tribute to Irene Sharaff in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the awards.

Back in 1993, TDF's Costume Collection Rental Program honored one of the most legendary of theatrical and film costume designers, Irene Sharaff, for her lifetime achievements in a small ceremony at their West 26th Street warehouse. She passed away later that year and in her honor, and with the approval of her estate, TDF launched the annual TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Costume Design in 1994. A Young Master Award was added in order to celebrate and up-and-coming designers in addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award.

A few years later two other awards were added, the Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design, which celebrates the career of a designer that could be either a costume or scenic designer, and an Artisan Award for those special milliners, beaders, wigmakers, etc. who rarely get recognitions.

The event, which now takes place at the Edison Ballroom has become the go-to event for a who's who of costume and theatrical designers. Each year costume designer Suzy Benzinger puts on her documentary film producer/director hat to create a short film as memorial tribute to a legendary designer from the past.

Photo Credit: Anita and Steve Shevett