The records within this collection highlight Tony award winning costume designer Martin Pakledinaz' academic career as a student within Wayne State University's Department of Theatre and the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance during the early to mid-1970's. The collection subsequently incorporates a small portion of his sketches as a burgeoning costume designer in New York from 1977 to 1978.
Martin Pakledinaz (September 1, 1953-July 8, 2012), affectionately known as "Marty", was an award winning American costume designer for stage and film. A native of Sterling Heights, Michigan, Pakledinaz received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Wayne State University's Department of Theatre in 1975 and later attended the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. In 1977 Pakledinaz moved to New York to embark upon a promising design career where he fastened himself under the tutelage of award winning costume designers Theoni V. Aldredge and Barbara Matera. With a career spanning thirty-five years (1977 to 2012), he is best known for his work on the Broadway productions of Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002), and Kiss Me Kate, a 1999 revival of the original 1948 production. Pakledinaz received Tony Awards for Best Costume Design for his work on these productions.
Pakledinaz' credits extend beyond Broadway as they include work with the Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden, the New York Metropolitan and the New York City Opera, as well as opera houses in Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. His off-Broadway work includes The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party, The Misanthrope, Kevin Kline's Hamlet, Twelve Dreams, Waste, and Troilus and Cressida. Pakledinaz' design work also extends to the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as the San Francisco, Boston, New York City, and Pacific Northwest Ballets.
During his career, Pakledinaz received numerous accolades including eight Tony Award nominations for Best Costume Design, seven Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Costume Design, one Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design (Kiss Me, Kate, 2000), eight Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding Costume Design, the Irene Sharaff Memorial Tribute Award, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Costume Design (The Wild Party, 2000), and one Obie award for Costume Design (Misanthrope, 1999). On January 28, 2013, shortly after his passing, Pakledinaz was posthumously inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
