Patricia Zipprodt | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 24, 1925 |
| Died | July 17, 1999(1999-07-17) (aged 74) Greenwich Village, New York, US |
| Alma mater | Bradford Junior College Wellesley College Fashion Institute of Technology |
| Occupation | costume designer |
| Spouse | Colonel O'Brien |
Patricia Zipprodt (February 24, 1925 – July 17, 1999) was an Americancostume designer. She was known for her technique of painting fabrics and thoroughly researching a project's subject matter, especially when it was aperiod piece. During a career that spanned four decades, she worked with suchBroadway theatre legends asJerome Robbins,Harold Prince,Gower Champion,David Merrick, andBob Fosse.
Born inChicago, Illinois, Zipprodt attended Bradford Junior College for her freshman year and then transferred toWellesley College, where she abandoned her plan to become a medical illustrator and concentrated onpsychology andsociology. After graduation, she moved toNew York City and, after seeing a performance by theNew York City Ballet, decided to use her artistic talent for a career in costume design. She studied at theFashion Institute of Technology andapprenticed withCharles James andIrene Sharaff. Her first job was as a puppeteer for the Good Teeth Council for Children in 1947.[1][2]
Her first Broadway credit wasThe Potting Shed, a play byGraham 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. She also designed for the New York City Ballet, theJoffrey Ballet, theHouston Ballet,American Ballet Theatre, theNew York City Opera, and theMetropolitan Opera. She designed costumes and masks for the long-runningoff-Broadway production of theJean Genet playThe Blacks in the early 1960s.
Zipprodt'sfeature film credits includeThe Graduate,Last of the Mobile Hot Shots, and1776. She designed television adaptations ofThe Glass Menagerie,Alice in Wonderland, andSunday 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 herbiography inPlaybill and contacted her viaBrandeis University, where she was an artist in residence.[3]
In 1983, Zipprodt received a Tony Award nomination for her work onAlice in Wonderland, produced byThe Mirror Theater Ltd’s Sabra Jones. Zipprodt’s designs were exact recreations of theJohn Tenniel drawings for the original publication of the bookAlice in Wonderland.[4]
Colonel O'Brien and Zipprodt were married on June 5, 1993, and remained married until his death in 1998. Zipprodt died ofcancer on July 17, 1999, at her home inGreenwich Village. She was 74 years old.[3]
