The Fashion Institute of Technology’s (F.I.T.) First Annual Patricia Zipprodt Awards will be hosted by Tony Randall, according to production sources. The awards program will take place on May 3 at the Players Club in New York City.
Designed to create an initial bond between F.I.T.’s Costume Design Program and the greater Broadway community, the annual Zipprodt awards are also meant to establish awareness for the Fashion Institute within the theatre world. This enhanced profile will enable school management to offer more comprehensive programs. The annual luncheon will benefit the F.I.T. program directly.
Ann Hould-Ward, the Tony Award-winning costume designer for Disney's Beauty and the Beast will receive the inaugural Patricia Zipprodt Award for Innovative Costume Design. Hould-Ward won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Her Tony nominations for costume design were for Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George.
Hould-Ward is creating costumes for the American Ballet Theater’s world premiere of ‘The Pied Piper” at Lincoln Center.
FIT's two costume design awards will honor lifetime achievement and best of Broadway season winners. The award winners are chosen by a committee comprising Tony winner Donald Sadler, fashion designer Donald Brooks, ATW's Isabelle Stevenson, and two F.I.T. faculty members. The Players Club luncheon will be attended by F.I.T.'S president, Dr. Joyce Brown, honorary chair Joel Grey, co-chairs Marion Seldes and Constance Zipprodt-Zonka (Zipprodt's sister), Rosemary Harris, Shubert Organization chairman Gerald Schoenfeld, Mrs. Burton Lane, Donald Sadler and others.
The award program was announced last year by F.I.T.’s Brown and American Theatre Wing chairman Isabelle Stevenson at a May 25 luncheon at Sardi's. Long range, FIT also seeks to expand its curriculum, establish a theatre collection and explore joint programs with sister colleges in the State system, such as SUNY Purchase, which could share its set design facilities and programs with F.I.T.
Patricia Zipprodt's career as a costume designer was frequently punctuated with Tony Awards and nominations. She took home three Tony awards for costume design, for Fiddler on the Roof ('65), Cabaret ('67) and for Sweet Charity ('86). Her costume design Tony nominations include Zorba ('69), Pippin ('73), Mack and Mabel ('75), Chicago ('76), Alice in Wonderland ('83), Sunday in the Park with George ('84) and Shogun: The Musical ('91).
The inaugural award is particularly meaningful because this year's recipient, Hould-Ward, was close to Zipprodt and was considered her protégé.
—By Murdoch McBride
