Tony Award-winning actress Angela Lansbury, Tony Award-winning director/designer Julie Taymor, director Jim Simpson and sound designer Jonathan Deans will be at Fordham University on Dec. 10 to present the 1999 Eddy Awards honoring excellence in entertainment design and technology.
Receiving the 1999 Eddy Awards will be Kyle Chepulis, Michael Curry, Abe Jacob, Barbara Matera and the creative team of "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man" at Universal's Islands of Adventure.
Barbara Matera is a principal supplier of costumes for Broadway and ballet as well as opera and film. She built costumes for Angela Lansbury to wear in productions of Gypsy, Mame and Dear World and an Inaugural Ball gown for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Lansbury will present Matera with her 1999 EDDY award.
Michael Curry's dramatic puppets can be seen in the new millennium parade, "Tapestry of Nations," at Disney World in Orlando, and in a special New Year's parade in Times Square. Curry has collaborated on numerous projects with acclaimed director-designer Julie Taymor, herself a recipient of a 1997 TCI Award (former EDDY award) and a renowned puppet designer. Their work includes the masks and puppets for the Broadway smash musical, Disney's The Lion King, as well as Taymor's operas Oedipus Rex and The Magic Flute. Taymor will present the 1999 EDDY Award to Curry.
Set and lighting designer Kyle Chepulis has collaborated on numerous productions with Jim Simpson, the artistic director and president of the board of The Bat Theatre at The Flea in Manhattan. These projects include Simpson's Obie Award-winning Benton Kozo and Karen Finley's Return of The Chocolate Smeared Woman at The Bat. Simpson will present Chepulis with his 1999 EDDY Award. Sound designer Abe Jacob will receive his 1999 EDDY award from fellow sound designer and colleague Jonathan Deans. A mentor to generations of sound designers, Jacob is widely regarded as the "godfather" of his craft and worked with Dean for many years in London on such shows as A Chorus Line, Evita, and Cats.
The final 1999 EDDY Award will be presented to the creative team of "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man" at Universal's Islands of Adventure: Scott Trowbridge, lighting designer Anne Miletello, sound designer Carl Hartzler, production designer Thierry Coup, set designers Phil Bloom and Eric Parr, Kleiser-Walczak for computer imagery as well as Mark Woodbury, executive vice-president of Universal Studios.
The EDDY Awards honor excellence in entertainment design and technology. Each year, the winners are selected by the editors of Entertainment Design magazine with an eye toward outstanding contributions in technical and design-related industries. There are no rules, no fixed categories, no age limits, and no restrictions. Since 1991, over 25 individuals, four design or production teams, one union, one creature shop and one production department have been so honored.
The EDDY Awards are sponsored by Entertainment Design magazine and will be presented in Pope Auditorium at Fordham University at 60th Street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan. For additional information about the EDDY Awards and the BLMC call (212) 229-2965 ext. 829 or fax (212) 229 2084.
-- By Murdoch McBride
