Mary Percy Schenck Cosgrove (July 16, 1917[1] – August 30, 2005) was an Americancostume designer who won theTony Award for Best Costume Design in 1948 for her work onRuth Goetz'sThe Heiress. Mainly active as a designer during the 1940s, she designed costumes for several successfulBroadway plays and foroperas with theMetropolitan Opera.
Born Mary Percy Schenck inJersey City, New Jersey, to Robert Percy Schenck, she was a descendant ofJacob W. Van Winkle (1727–1778) who was a lieutenant in theContinental Army during theAmerican Revolutionary War.[1] Trained at theYale School of Drama, she won theTony Award for Best Costume Design in 1948 for her work onRuth Goetz'sThe Heiress.[2] She made her Broadway debut designing costumes forThornton Wilder'sPulitzer Prize winning dramaThe Skin of Our Teeth in 1942. Her other work on Broadway includedMae West'sCatherine Was Great (1944),George S. Kaufman'sHollywood Pinafore,Mary Chase'sThe Next Half Hour (1945), and Michael Myerberg'sDear Judas (1948).[3]
In 1940 she designed costumes for a new staging of Giuseppe Verdi'sIl trovatore for theMetropolitan Opera with directorHerbert Graf. The new production debuted on December 12, 1940, withJussi Björling as Manrico, Norina Greco as Leonora, and Frank Valentino as the Count Di Luna withFerrucio Calusio conducting. The production remained in the Met's repertory through 1956. She also designed the costumes forLee Simonson's production ofRichard Wagner'sRing Cycle for the Metropolitan Opera in 1948.[4]
Her husband was Eugene Joseph Cosgrove (1921–1980), and their son is the guitarist Mark Cosgrove who is a member of the Philadelphia-basedbluegrass group the Lewis Brothers, and has worked extensively as a session musician forJerry Douglas.[5]
She died on August 30, 2005, inTennent, New Jersey.
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