Patricia Zipprodt

Patricia Zipprodt (February 24, 1925 - July 17, 1999) was a Tony Award-winning American costume designer. She was known for her technique of painting fabrics and thorough research of a project's subject matter, especially when it was a period piece, and during a career that spanned four decades, she worked with such Broadway theatre legends as Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince, Gower Champion, David Merrick, and Bob Fosse.

Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Zipprodt attended Bradford Junior College for her freshman year and then transferred to Wellesley College, where she abandoned her plan to become a medical illustrator and concentrated on psychology and sociology. After graduation she moved to New York City and, after seeing a performance by the New York City Ballet, decided to use her artistic talent for a career in costume design. She studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology and apprenticed with Charles James and Irene Sharaff.

Zipprodt's first Broadway credit was "The Potting Shed", a play by Graham Greene, in 1957. She went on to design more than 50 productions over the next 43 years. In 1992, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Zipprodt also designed for the New York City Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, the Houston Ballet, American Ballet Theater, the New York City Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. She designed costumes and masks for the long-running off-Broadway production of the Jean Genet play "The Blacks" in the early 1960s.

Zipprodt's feature film credits include "The Graduate", "Last of the Mobile Hot Shots", and "1776". She designed television adaptations of "The Glass Menagerie", "Alice in Wonderland", and "Sunday in the Park with George".

In 1946, following her graduation from Wellesley, Zipprodt had returned to Chicago, where she met Lieut. Col. Robert O'Brien, Jr. He proposed but she declined because she wanted to pursue a career. More than forty years later, the retired and widowed O'Brien saw her biography in "Playbill" and contacted her via Brandeis University, where she was an artist in residence. The two wed in 1993 and remained married until his death in 1998. The following year, Zipprodt died of cancer at her home in Greenwich Village.

Productions

*"Miss Lonelyhearts" (1957)
*"Sunday in New York" (1961)
*"She Loves Me" (1963)
*"Fiddler on the Roof" (1964)
*"Cabaret" (1966)
*"The Little Foxes" (1967)
*"Plaza Suite" (1968)
*"Zorba" (1968)
*"Georgy" (1970)
*"Pippin" (1972)
*"Mack & Mabel" (1974)
*"Chicago" (1975)
*"King of Hearts" (1978)
*"Fools" (1981)
*"Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1983)
*"Alice in Wonderland" (1983)
*"Sweet Charity" (1986)
*"Into the Woods" (1987)
*"Jerome Robbins' Broadway" (1989)
*"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1990)
*"" (1990)
*"The Crucible" (1991)
*"My Favorite Year" (1992)
*"My Fair Lady" (1993)

Awards and nominations

*1997 Theatre Development Fund's Irene Sharaff Award for Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design (winner)
*1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("My Fair Lady", nominee)
*1991 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Shogun", nominee)
*1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costumes ("Shogun", winner)
*1986 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Sweet Charity", winner)
*1984 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Sunday in the Park with George", nominee)
*1984 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("Sunday in the Park with George", nominee)
*1983 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Alice in Wonderland", nominee)
*1983 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("Alice in Wonderland", nominee)
*1981 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("Fools", nominee)
*1979 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("King of Hearts", winner)
*1976 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Chicago", nominee)
*1975 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Mack & Mabel", nominee)
*1973 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Pippin", nominee)
*1973 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("Pippin", winner)
*1971 Wellesley's Alumnae Achievement Award (winner)
*1969 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Zorba", nominee)
*1969 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("1776", winner)
*1969 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design ("Zorba", winner)
*1967 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Cabaret", winner)
*1965 Tony Award for Best Costume Design ("Fiddler on the Roof", winner)

References

*cite web | author=Liz Ruark | title=Person of the Week: Patricia Zipprodt '46 | url=http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/zipprodt.html | publisher=Wellesley College | date=14 July 2000 | accessdate=2008-05-09
*cite web | author=Jane Hogan | title=In Memoriam: Patricia Zipprodt | url=http://livedesignonline.com/mag/show_business_memoriam_patricia_zipprodt | work=Live Design | date=1 October 1999 | accessdate=2008-05-09

External links

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###@@@KEY@@@### s-ach|awsuccession box
title=Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design
years=1978-1979
for "King of Hearts"
before=Florence Klotz
for "On the Twentieth Century"
after=Pierre Balmain
for "Happy New Year"