Carrie Robbins, Designer, Playwright: has spent the majority of her work-life designing costumes on Broadway and Off, here and abroad. She’s particularly known for the quality of her character drawing. In March 2011 she became the 2nd costume designer ever to be honored with a monograph on her design work (Published by USITT/Broadway Press; available at Amazon.com or DramaBookshop, NYC). In May 2012, she was given the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award presented by TDF/Costume Collection “for Excellence in Costume Design”. In 2008-09 Robbins curated an exhibit at the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts, “CURTAIN CALL, Celebrating 100 years of Design by Women for Live Performance”, and has written over half the accompanying catalog (from 1949 to 2009), still available at the Library’s desk.
Robbins was Master Teacher of Costume Design at the Tisch School of the Arts for many years & is extremely proud of the huge successes of her many graduates. Besides several having been nominated for & won the existing major costume awards (Tony, Oscar, Emmy), half-dozen have won the Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, and more than 20 hold positions teaching costume in major universities across the country.
RD Robbins MD [Dick], (Surgeon, Writer), graduate of Harvard (Literature/History/
A great raconteur, Dick told unforgettable stories of his daily adventures in the hospital from the moment he walked into Bellevue. And I often found the stories funnier, more horrific, more endearing, more shattering, more life-affirming, more compelling, than much of what I was working on in my professional life as a costume designer in the theater. After he died, I began to think about some of his major themes and favorite characters. He wrote, I felt, from a singular vantage point.
I thought perhaps I might find a way to turn his narrative into dialogue. I knew little about short stories; but I knew something about plays.
This idea formed the genesis of Carrie Robbins, Designer-cum-Playwright, a role I never intended to play.
It took much trial and error, countless applications to fill out, opinions to solicit, rejections to file away in order to find my way. Actor friends pitched in and the characters started to come alive. Benny & Bella, our favorite indigents. The “half-done” transsexual in Rikers. The resolute old jeweler with the strong taste for freedom. Each year more and more stories became plays and were chosen for readings.
Some highlights from Days of the Giants:
In 2009: Abingdon Theatre, West 36th Street, chose THE DEATH & LIFE OF DR. CUTTER for its “First Readings Series”.
In 2011-12: League of Professional Theatre Women chose THE DRAGON QUARTET as part of its 30th year anniversary celebration.
In 2012-13: La MaMa (oldest off-off-Broadway theater in NYC at 51 years) chose THE DIAMOND EATER for its “Concert Reading Series”.
In 2013: TACT (The Actors Company Theatre, Wall Street Journal’s 2012 “Company of the Year”) chose SAWBONES for part of its newTACTics New Play Festival.
In 2014: SAWBONES & THE DIAMOND EATER (HERE/NY) received 6 Nominations from N.Y. Innovative Theatre Awards
(the most nominations given out in the 2014 season)
In 2015: Le WEDDING DRESS, SEMI-FINALIST in NYNewWorks Theatre Festival.
In 2016: OBSESSIONS OF AN ART STUDENT chosen by NYNewWorks Theatre Festival.
In 2016: THE ACTRESS, FINALIST in NY Thespis Summer Festival.
In 2017: MY SWOLLEN FEET, chosen by NY Summerfest Theatre Festival/ Hudson Guild Theatre.
In 2018: THE DIAMOND EATER, SEMI-FINALIST: Theatre at 14th St. Y competition War + Peace/2018/19 season.
In 2018: THE DRAGON GRISWYND, chosen by Theater for the New City for its “Dream-Up Festival”
In 2019: PIE LESSONS, invited by Crystal Field, Exec. Artistic Director of Theater for the New City, to be part of
“Scratch Night at TNC”.