The League of Professional Theatre Women will honor Tony Award-winning lighting designer Tharon Musser at its annual Spring Luncheon on Thursday, June 19. Musser will be presented with the 2003 Ruth Morley Designing Woman of the Year Award by set designer Tony Walton.
Tharon Musser began her distinguished career in lighting design with the original 1956 production of Long Day's Journey into Night. She received Tony Awards for Best Lighting Design for her work on Follies, A Chorus Line, and Dreamgirls, and Tony nominations for Applause, A Little Night Music, The Good Doctor, Pacific Overtures, The Act, Ballroom, and 42nd Street.
Musser's other major credits include The Entertainer (1958), Once Upon a Mattress (1959), Any Wednesday (1964), The Lion in Winter (1966), Mame (1966), A Delicate Balance (1966), The Birthday Party (1967), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971), Candide (1974), The Wiz (1975), Same Time Next Year (1975), They're Playing Our Song (1979), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1986), Lost in Yonkers (1991), and The Secret Garden (1991).
Walton's big hits include Anything Goes (1986), Grand Hotel (1989), and Guys and Dolls (1992). This season he designed the Paul Newman Our Town. His collaborations with Tharon include The Good Doctor (1973), The Act (1977), The Real Thing (1984), and Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993).
This award was initiated in 1998 in honor of costume designer Ruth Morley, a leading designer in theatre and film (Annie, Tootsie, Prince of Tides, Deathtrap). Jane Greenwood was the award’s first recipient. In 2000 it was given to lighting designer Jennifer Tipton for her work in theatre, dance, and opera. Costume designer Willa Kim received the award in 2001, and set designer Marjorie Bradley Kellog received the honor in 2002.
Now in its 21st year, the League of Professional Theatre Women is a not-for-profit organization that promotes visibility and increasing opportunities for women in the theatre. The League is made up of women in the professional theatre in New York and/or in other parts of the country who are active in various aspects of the for-profit and not-for profit professional theatre. It includes actors, administrators, agents, choreographers, composers, critics, designers, directors, educators, general managers, librettists, lyricists, press agents, producers, and stage managers.
Tickets for the League's Spring Luncheon, which will take place at Trattoria Dopo Teatro at 125 West 44th Street in Manhattan, are priced at $32 (advance) or $37 (at the door) and are available by calling 212-501-6667.