Written by Roberto Leal
The 75th Tony Awards Show will always be remembered as the year Academy Award winner and host, Ariana Debose, wowed the audience in a musical medley created by multi-award-winning actor, director, and composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Another distiction was that although five very talented Latinos were nominated for Tonys, only Albuquerque, New Mexico native, Montana Levi Blanco won the coveted prize for Best Costume Design in a Play for The Skin of Our Teeth.
(PHOTO: Browadway.com)
The Skin of Our Teeth marked Blanco’s Broadway debut. He was characteristically modest upon receiving the award. “I am just so grateful and I am thinking of all the people who help me get here,” said the soft-spoken Blanco.
The Skin of Our Teeth, which was directed by Liliana Blain-Cruz, who was also nominated for at Tony in the Best Director of a Play category. The story that takes place over three time periods the 1950s, 1920s and post-Civil War. With a cast of 28 doing anywhere from three to five costume changes, the play presented a challenge for Blanco as the costume designer.
“The challenging part was physically accomplishing the 120 costumes,” recalls Blanco. “120 costumes are more typical of a musical not a play.”
But it’s a challenge Blanco was more than up for because Blanco enjoys all aspects of costume design from choosing fabrics, working with the artisans in New York’s famous garment district, and seeing it all come together. Blanco fondly recalls being inspired by his grandmother’s lamp shade business. “It was watching her work with all kinds of fabrics, beads and trim where I learned to love those elements and took them with me in my career as a costume designer.”
In addition to winning the Tony for Best Costume Design in a Play, Blanco also designed the costumes for this year’s Tony winner for Best Musical, A Strange Loop.
More diversity on Broadway was the overriding theme of this year’s Tony Awards Show. As a proud gay Latina host, Ariana Debose quipped at the beginning of the show, “The Great White Way is becoming more of a nickname than a how-to-guide..” Blanco’s years of hard work on Broadway and dedication to his craft is a testament to that sentiment and the promise of more trips up on the stage to win more Tonys.