St. Ambrose University alum Brian Hemesath just won his second Daytime Emmy award and is scheduled to receive another prestigious award for costume designers this Friday.
The 1994 St. Ambrose theater graduate was part of the PBS "Sesame Street" team that on Friday won the Outstanding Costume Design/Styling category at the 42nd-annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Mr. Hemesath (who designs the iconic series' live actors, with fellow winner Jared Leese) has worked on "Sesame Street" since 2009, has received five Emmy nominations and previously won in the same category in 2011.
Emmy nominations are given and won as a team, Mr. Hemesath said in a Dispatch/Argus interview last July. "What they do is incredible and the timeframe they do it is incredible," he said of "Sesame Street." "The puppets can't talk back but that doesn't mean the puppeteers can't."
Like "Saturday Night Live" (for which he has worked in costuming since 2002), "Sesame Street" attracts big-name celebrities to guest star as well. "It gives them a lot of happiness," Mr. Hemesath said. "The adults have a better time than even the kids do. It's very nostalgic for them."
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Mr. Hemesath's costuming talent also has earned him this year's Theatre Development Fund Irene Sharaff Young Master Award.
This award honors a designer of distinction early in his or her career, "given in recognition of Irene Sharaff's wish to see young designers encouraged on their way to fully acknowledged success and excellence in the field," according to tdf.org.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony this Friday, May 1, at the Hudson Theatre, New York City. The honors (including a Lifetime Achievement Award) are named for Ms. Sharaff (1910-1993), whose costume designs won five Academy Awards (she was nominated for 15 Oscars) and a Tony (in 1952 for "The King and I").
Mr. Hemesath made his Broadway debut in 2014 as the costume designer for "Honeymoon in Vegas," the new Jason Robert Brown and Andrew Bergman musical, based on the 1992 film. The musical first ran at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse, transferred to Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre in November, for previews, with its official run Jan. 15 to April 5, garnering rave reviews but not enough of an audience.
After St. Ambrose, Mr. Hemesath earned his master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 before moving to New York City. He has served as the assistant costume designer to Catherine Zuber for the 2009 Broadway revival of "The Royal Family," and his Off-Broadway costume design credits include "Unbroken Circle" (2013) and "Disaster! A 70's Disaster Movie Musical" (2012).
He has designed costumes and assisted with productions at Paper Mill Playhouse, Skylight Opera Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, Judith Anderson Theatre, the Rockwell Theater, Galvin Fine Arts Center and the Bronx Opera.
Mr. Hemesath was operations manager for Dodger Costumes Inc. where, under his direction, the shop built costumes for the Broadway revivals of "42nd Street," "Into the Woods" and more, and he was an assistant costumer for the national tour of "Titanic."
In television, he has worked on select episodes of The Today Show, The Caroline Rhea Show and SNL.
