FILIPINO costume designer Clint Ramos won the Best Costume Design of a Play award for “Eclipsed” at the 2016 Tony Awards held in New York City last Sunday.
Ramos edged out other nominees Jane Greenwood, “Long Day’s Journey into the Night;” Michael Krass’ “Noises Off;” and Tom Scutt’s “Charles III.”
“Eclipsed” stars Oscar awardee Lupita Nyong’o. It is the story of five extraordinary women brought together by upheaval in their homeland in Liberia, according to NewYorkTheatreGuide.com. The stirring tale of hope, humor and resilience is directed by South African-born Liesl Tommy.
Ramos is the fourth Filipino to win a Tony award, aside from Lea Salonga, Robert Lopez, and Jhett Tolentino.
Launched 69 years ago, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre recognizes achievement in live Broadway.
Critics have earlier raved about the design of Ramos for the play which opened off-Broadway in October 2015. It transferred to Broadway in March 2016.
“Designer Clint Ramos deftly makes the point that while the captive wife-turned-rebel soldier has chosen to be a warrior as an escape from sexual servitude, in appearance, she’s in fact the most sexualized of the women, poured into skintight, bling-covered jeans and a skimpy Chanel knockoff top. It also emerges that, even as a soldier, she seeks out the strategic protection of high-ranking lovers,” according to a theater review of “The Hollywood Reporter.”
“Meticulously detailed design work by Clint Ramos (set and costumes), Jen Schriever (lighting) and Broken Chord (sound) presents a surreal — or perhaps hyper-real — setting of the bullet-riddled one-room hovel where the captured wives and, inevitably, the bastard children of a base commander of the rebel Liberian army are housed. The women are colorfully clothed in authentic but well-worn native dress, and when they aren’t servicing their unseen lord and master, they remain sequestered in this small room, cooking for him, laundering his clothes and awaiting his every command,” the “Variety US” edition wrote.
Ramos is the recipient of an OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence in Design, 3 Lucille Lortel Awards, 2 American Theater Wing Henry Hewes Awards and 7 nominations, TDF Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, Helen Hayes Award, Craig Noel Award, and 2 Drama Desk nominations, among other awards.
He is also the recipient of the Ani ng Dangal presidential medal for dramatic arts from the president of the Philippines.
Ramos has designed sets and/or costumes for over a hundred theater, opera and dance productions. Selected credits include the Broadway productions of “Violet and The Elephant Man” with Bradley Cooper (also West End). Highlights also include “Here Lies Love” (NY and National, London), “Eclipsed” with Lupita Nyong’o, “Barbecue,” “The Good Person of Szechuan,” “Appropriate,” “Angels in America,” “Wild with Happy,” “Bootycandy,” and many more.
