OSF's Deborah M. Dryden Wins TDF Lifetime Achievement Award for Costume Design; Ceremony Set for 5/2

Longtime Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) costume designer Deborah M. Dryden has been selected by the Theatre Development Fund (TDF) as the 2014 recipient of the TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design. The award will be presented by designer David Woolard at a May 2 ceremony at the Hudson Theatre in New York City.

"I am honored and humbled by this prestigious award," Dryden said. "As this year's awards ceremony celebrates the work of designers working in regional theatre, I am particularly proud to represent the artists of OSF who have collaborated on the creation of many of the productions I have designed."

The TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, first presented to Sharaff in 1993, is bestowed upon a costume designer whose career is marked by great distinction, a mastery of the art, and work that embodies the 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.

Other artists to be honored at the ceremony include scenic designer, writer and professor Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design); costume designer Linda Cho (TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award); and costume builder Marianne Krostyne (TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award). The event will also include a special memorial tribute to opera, theatre and film costume Designer Sam Kirkpatrick.

In her 34 seasons at OSF, Dryden's designs have appeared in over 80 productions, including Seagull, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Pirates of Penzance, Hamlet, Equivocation, The Clay Cart, and Green Show performances. She recently designed costumes for All the Way at both OSF and the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway, and for the play's sequel, The Great Society, which premieres at OSF in July. Dryden retired as OSF resident costume designer in 2012 and now holds the position of Resident Costume Designer Emerita.

Dryden has also designed for: Arena Stage, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, Kennedy Center, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory, Huntington Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Alaska Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Portland Opera, Old Globe, Minnesota Opera, Denver Center Theatre, Alley Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory, Intiman Theatre, San Diego Opera, Seattle Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse and the Mark Taper Forum. She is the author of Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre, a Professor Emerita of Design at University of California, San Diego, and continues to teach workshops and master classes in design and fabric dyeing and painting. Her awards include the Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration and the USITT Distinguished Achievement Award.

Theatre Development Fund is dedicated to developing diverse audiences for live theatre and dance, and strengthening the performing arts community in New York City. Since 1968, TDF's programs have provided over 86 million people with access to performances at affordable prices and have returned over $2.4 billion to thousands of productions. TDF's programs have introduced thousands of people to the theatre and helped make the unique experience of theatre available to everyone, including students and people with disabilities.

Since its founding by Angus Bowmer in 1935, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to the largest rotating repertory theatre in the country, presenting an eight-month season consisting of 11 plays that include works by Shakespeare as well as a mix of classics, musicals, and new works. The Festival also draws attendance of more than 400,000 to almost 800 performances every year and employs approximately 575 theatre professionals. In 2008, OSF launched American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle, a 10-year cycle of commissioning new plays that has already resulted in several OSF commissions finding success nationwide, including All The Way, which won the inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History in 2013 and was nominated for two Tony Awards on April 29, 2014.

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