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Sunday Spotlight: Meet the Princess Grace Award winning Designers

Welcome back to our “Sunday Spotlight” series. Throughout this series, we recognize many of the incredible artists who have previously been awarded by the Princess Grace Foundation-USA.

This week, we are delighted to introduce you to some of our renowned Princess Grace Award-winning Designers. Designers are a key collaborator in any artistic project from Broadway to film and television to dance and opera performances. Through costumes, sets, lighting, and sound, designers create the worlds the characters inhabit and bring to life the script and vision of the creative team.

The Princess Grace Foundation-USA is dedicated to upholding the legacy of Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco, (neé Grace Kelly) and elevating extraordinary emerging artists in theater, dance and film through career-advancing grants. Through annual unrestricted support, the Princess Grace Awards program recognizes creative generators (animators, theater directors, designers, playwrights, choreographers, filmmakers, etc.) and performance-based creatives (actors, dancers, etc.).

Applications for the Princess Grace Awards 2021 close tomorrow, Monday, February 15.

Paul Tazewell

Costume Design 1993

Cary Joji Fukunaga at the Princess Grace Foundation-USA Gala, posing on the red carpet wearing glasses

Tony and Emmy Award winner Paul Tazewell has designed some of this generation’s most iconic costumes. From his first Broadway production Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk (for which he received his first Tony Awards nomination) to the iconic Hamilton costumes, Paul’s designs have been seen on Broadway, on the silver screen, and even at the Smithsonian. And, in 2020, Paul lent his design skills to the Princess Grace Foundation designing the Grace Kelly-inspired masks. Paul is always “in the room where it happens” and the Foundation has been thrilled to have been in the room with him since 1993 when he received his Princess Grace Award.

Original Broadway Cast of "Hamilton"

See his work in Hamilton on Disney+ and Harriet

Upcoming: West Side Story out December 2021

Myung Hee Cho

Set and Costume Design, 1995

Myung Hee Cho is an acclaimed set and costume designer for theater, opera, dance, and other special productions. Her work has been seen around the world, including on the stages of The Public Theater, Glimmerglass Opera, National Theater of Korea, Canadian Opera Company, and even Shanghai Disney Resort where she designed the set and costumes for Golden Fairytale Fanfare. Myung is the Head of Scenic and Production Design at UCLA, nominating the next generation of Princess Grace Award winners.

Set and costumes for Golden Fairytale Fanfare

See more of her work at https://www.myungheechodesign.com/

Andrew Lieberman

Set Design, 2002

Set Designer Andrew Lieberman creates the worlds that bring to life the playwright’s words and director’s vision. A Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk nominee, and part of the creative team for Hendel’s Partenope which won the Lawrence Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production.

Andrew is an American designer based in Paris whose opera and theater designs have been seen throughout the world. A frequent collaborator with the director (and fellow Princess Grace Award winner Sam Gold), New York audiences may best know Andrew’s work from Othello at the New York Theatre Workshop and the recent Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie. The Princess Grace Foundation has been honored to be a part of Andrew’s pathway to artistic success since 2002.

Set Design for the Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie

Upcoming: Three Sisters at New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Sam Gold

Daniele Tyler Matthews

Costume Design 2014

Jon M Chu at the Princess Grace Foundation-USA Gala, posing on the red carpet

Daniele Tyler Matthews is a costume designer, drag artist, performer, and maker of clothes. Crowned Miss Hell’s Kitchen in 2019 and 2020, they are known not only for their exquisite clothing design and construction but also as drag sensation Gloria Swansong. The Princess Grace Foundation discovered Daniele as a costume designer perfecting their craft at Carnegie Mellon and has been proud to support and get to know Daniele through their beautiful craftsmanship and as the captivating Gloria.

Costume design for "Macbeth"

Follow @gloria_swansong for performances and their beautiful costumes and visit http://danieletylermathews.com/ to see more of their design work on the stage.

Darron L West

Sound Design, 1997

A Tony winner and OBIE winner, you might not recognize Darron L West’s face but you’ve certainly heard his work. Darron is one of the theater industry’s most sought after sound designers. The 2012 Tony Award winner for Best Sound Design of a Play for Peter and the Star Catcher, his work for theater and dance has been heard in over 500 productions nationally and internationally, and on Broadway and off. The Princess Grace Foundation first ‘heard’ of Darron back in 1997 when he was a young designer working with SITI Company.