Susan Hilferty to Receive 2010 Ruth Morley Design Award 6/10

The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), a non-profit organization committed to promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in the professional theatre, is pleased to recognize the talents of two outstanding women: the Ruth Morley Design Award will be given to Tony Award-winning costume designer Susan Hilferty, and the LPTW Lucille Lortel Award and accompanying grant will be presented to director and actor Rebecca Patterson. Full biographies of these women follow. These awards will be presented at the LPTW's 2010 Awards Luncheon, to be held from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 10 at Sardi's Restaurant.

Initiated in 1998 in honor of costume designer Ruth Morley, one of our profession's leading designers for theatre and film who also served on the LPTW Board of Directors, the 2010 Ruth Morley Design Award will be presented to Susan Hilferty. Ms. Hilferty has designed costumes for over 300 productions, from Broadway to the Bay area and back again, and internationally. Notable designs include Wicked (2004 Tony Award®, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and Olivier nomination) and Spring Awakening (Tony nomination). In addition to designing for the theatre, Ms. Hilferty has created for opera, film, and dance, and she chairs the Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

In April 1999, the LPTW received a bequest from the Lucille Lortel estate to establish a fund which would annually provide a grant to an aspiring woman in any discipline of theatre who is showing creative promise and deserves recognition and encouragement. This year's Lucille Lortel Award and accompanying $3000 grant will be presented to Rebecca Patterson, Artistic Director of The Queen's Company, known for its innovative productions of classical plays featuring all-female casts. The LPTW commends the company for their vision, and applauds them for often presenting the works of women playwrights including Aphra Behn, and most recently for their revival of the 18th century Restoration comedy, The Wonder by Susanna Centlivre.

Tickets to attend the reception and awards ceremony are $55, and are available online at www.BrownPaperTickets.com or by phone: 1-800-838-3006 option 1 (use event code 110408). All service charges included in the ticket price! Sardi's Restaurant is located at 234 West 44th Street, and the event will be held in the Eugenia Room on the 4th floor.

Susan Hilferty has designed costumes for over 300 productions, from Broadway to the Bay area and back again, and internationally from Japan to the UK, Australia to South Africa.

Recent designs include Sondheim on Sondheim, at the Roundabout; Suzan-Lori Parks's The Book of Grace at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Public Theater; The Year of Magical Thinking, at Chicago's Court Theatre; Wicked (2004 Tony Award®, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards, and Olivier nomination); Spring Awakening (Tony nomination); August Wilson's Radio Golf and Jitney; Lestat (Tony nomination); Assassins; Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk nominations, and the Hewes Award); Manon at the Los Angeles Opera and Berlin Staatsoper; Richard Nelson's Conversations in Tusculum; and Frank Wildhorn's Wonderland.

Ms. Hilferty works with such well-known theatre artists as Joe Mantello, James Lapine, Michael Mayer, Walter Bobbie, Robert Falls, JoAnne Akalaitis, Tony Kushner, Emily Mann, Rebecca Taichman, Laurie Anderson, Garry Hynes, and Athol Fugard. Indeed she has collaborated with Mr. Fugard since 1980, designing sets as well as costumes for productions of his plays, and often serving as co-director.

In addition to designing for the theatre, Ms. Hilferty has created for opera, film, and dance, and she chairs the Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her sensitive and evocative designs have won Ms. Hilferty numerous awards, including a 2000 OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Design.

REBECCA PATTERSON (Director) NYC: Wapato, Greeks & Centaurs (Women's Project), The Gabriels (SPF), The Imaginary Invalid (Resonance Ensemble), The Wonder, Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, Edward II, School For Scandal, Much Ado About Nothing, The Lucky Chance, Antony & Cleopatra, The Feign'd Courtesans, The Duchess of Malfi, The Rover, Macbeth (The Queen's Company) Regional: One Flea Spare, Angels in America, Vinegar Tom, Too Tall Blondes in Love, Marisol, The Dance and The Railroad and The Lisbon Traviata. Rebecca is Artistic Director of The Queen's Company, known for its innovative productions of classical plays featuring all-female casts.