Judy Dearing

In the 2010 edition of Ntozake Shange's book, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, the author describes Dearing's costumes in the book's 1976-78 theater adaptation:

In 1996, The Black Theatre Network established the biennial Judy Dearing Design Competition to encourage African American students of design.

Judy Dearing (1940 – September 30, 1995) was an American costume designer, dancer, and choreographer. She is most well known for designing costumes for a wide range of theater and musical productions, including Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize winning drama "A Soldier's Play" and the 1976 stage adaptation of Ntozake Shange's book, for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.

Dearing's designs were celebrated for their authenticity. She developed a folkloric look for the 1990 production of Once on This Island, using printed kente cloth, Dutch cotton prints, raw silk, and chiffon with metallics. "A costume has to appear natural," Ms. Dearing said in an interview that year with The New York Times. "Every night, she added, 'everything has to be set up to look realistic." The Times article indicates that the authenticity of her World War II uniforms is what won her the Obie award for A Soldier's Play.

Dearing was a recipient of nine AUDELCO Awards, a 1985 Obie Award and a 1988 Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP Image Award. She won the Obie Award her for her World War II uniforms for Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize winning drama "A Soldier's Play." She died at New York Hospital in 1995 of acute pneumonia.