Toni-Leslie James
Toni-Leslie James is the winner of the 2009 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Costume Design (with special reference to Wig Out, Vineyard Theatre) her other awards include: Connecticut Critics Circle Award, The FANY Award, the LA Drama Logue Award, the American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, and the Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award for Costume Design Excellence.
She is the costume designer for The Scottsboro Boys which opens October 2010, and was the Costume Designer for City Center Encores! production of Finian’s Rainbow which opened on Broadway in the fall of 2009. Toni-Leslie James’ other Broadway costume design experience includes Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, One Mo’ Time, King Hedley II, The Wild Party (Fany Award), Marie Christine, Footloose, The Tempest (Drama Desk nomination), Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, Angels in America, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Jelly’s Last Jam (Tony and Drama Desk Nominations, Hewes Design Award and LA Drama-Logue Award). Her Off-Broadway work includes: Bernarda Alba (Hewes Design Nomination), Dessa Rose, Elegies, A New Brain, God’s Heart and Hello Again for Lincoln Center Theater;Macbeth, Henry VIII, Dancing on Her Knees, Insurrection, Measure for Measure, East Texas Hot Links, Dog Opera, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Drama Desk and American Theatre Wing Nominations) and Spunk for the New York Public Theatre; Face The Music, Of Thee I Sing, Can-Can, House of Flowers, The Boys From Syracuse, Babes in Arms, Bloomer Girl and A Connecticut Yankee for City Center Encores.
Her designs also include productions for 3 Mo’ Divas at Area Stage, (2006-07 Helen Hayes Award nomination) and productions at Second Stage, Circle Rep, Hartford Stage, The Long Wharf, The Huntington Theatre Company, The Mark Taper Forum, The Shakespeare Theatre, Berkley Rep, The Houston Grand Opera, Center Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Ballet Hispanico. Ms. James television work includes three specials for WNET/13 Great Performances series, the soap opera As the World Turns and Whoopi on NBC. Her film work includes: The Huey P. Newton Story, andA Tale of Two Pizzas. Ms. James is also the recipient of the Connecticut Critics Circle Award and the Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award for Costume Design Excellence. Toni is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829.