Santo Loquasto and Bob Mackie Honored with Sharaff Awards

Legendary designers Santo Loquasto and Bob Mackie are among the recipients of this year's TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards. For his achievements as both a costume and set designer, 14-time Tony Award nominee and 3-time Tony winner Santo Loquasto will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Award's special Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design. Acclaimed costume designer Bob Mackie will receive the 2007 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony on Friday, March 23, at the Hudson Theatre in New York.

In addition to Loqauasto and Mackie, costume designer Murell Horton will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award; famed theatre craftsman/designer Kermit Love will receive the TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award; and Rouben Ter-Arutunian, the famed designer and director, will be named the winner of the TDF/Irene Sharaff Posthumous Award.

"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 2007 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards, who were selected by the TDF Costume Collection's Advisory Committee," according to notes. The TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards are presented through TDF's Costume Collection.

Santo Loquasto (Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement) has designed the sets and/or costumes for 58 Broadway productions. A 14-time Tony Award nominee, he has won the coveted award three times: The Cherry Orchard, Café Crown and Grand Hotel. On film, his costume designs for Zelig and production designs for Radio Days and Bullets Over Broadway received Academy Award nominations. In the world of dance, he has designed works for Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Agnes DeMille. Loquasto, who was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame on 2004, is represented on Broadway this spring with Prelude to a Kiss, Inherit the Wind and 110 in the Shade.

Bob Mackie (TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award) is a nine-time Emmy Award-winner. Costume designer Mackie's name is synonymous with television design, but his contributions to theatre and film are considerable. His theatrical credits include: Moon over Buffalo, Putting It Together, Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public, Minnelli on Minnelli, Lorelei, and the revival of On the Town. Mackie also designed Pennies from Heaven, Lady Sings the Blues and Funny Lady, all of which earned him Oscar nominations. His inventive and memorable designs have helped raise entertainers like Diana Ross, Elton John, Ann-Margret, Carol Channing, Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, Bette Midler and Cher to iconic status both on-screen and off.

Murell Horton (TDF/Irene Sharaff Young Master Award) works in theatre, opera, dance and fashion, but is most known for his design work at Washington DC 's Shakespeare Theatre. He has been nominated three times for the Helen Hayes Award for his work there: Camino Real, Hedda Gabler, and Lorenzaccio. In 2005, Murell designed Lysistrata at the New York City Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. Horton also designs costumes for Manhattan's Pearl Theatre Company.

Kermit Love (TDF/Irene Sharaff Artisan Award) worked with the Muppets for many years and is largely responsible for the look of some of Sesame Street's best-known characters. Jim Henson designed the idea for Big Bird, but it is Mr. Love who built much of the character and refined and improved the way Big Bird looks and works. He also built Mr. Snuffleupagus for Sesame Street and created the Snuggle Fabric Softener Teddy Bear, as well as the characters for the TV Series The Great Space Coaster (1981-86). Love has designed costumes for several Broadway and dance productions over the years as well as teaching at the Pratt Institute, Columbia University and the University of Hawaii. He has also created characters for 22 foreign versions of Sesame Street.

Rouben Ter-Arutunian (TDF/Irene Sharaff Posthumous Award) has designed over 20 Broadway shows including New Girl in Town, Donnybrook! and The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore. He won a Tony Award for costume design for the 1959 production of Redhead and was nominated for four other Tony Awards. Ter-Arutunian is especially well known for his collaborations with George Balanchine for whom he designed 34 ballets over a 25 year period. He worked extensively in television and in film and won a 1957 Emmy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on Twelfth Night. Rouben Ter-Arutunian died in 1992.

The awardees were selected by the TDF/Costume Collection's Advisory Committee, which is comprised of leading members of the theatrical costume design community.

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