Ming Cho Lee

"Ming Cho Lee is considered to be the most influential stage designer in the United States in the past forty years, and one of the most respected designers in the world. His work with theater, opera, and dance companies in the 1960s, particularly the New York Shakespeare Festival, the New York City Opera, and the Joffrey Ballet, transformed the very nature of the design in America and introduced a scenic vocabulary and spatial aesthetic that underlies scenographic styles to the present day. Lavishly illustrated with over five hundred images in both color and black and white, this book chronicles Lee's career from his early training as a water-colorist in China, his designs for over three hundred productions, and his esteemed forty-year career at the Yale School of Drama as a mentor to an entire generations of scenic designers. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the highest national award given in the arts awarded by the President of the United States, Lee's work has been showcased at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and in fall 2013, the Yale School of Architecture will host a major retrospective of his work. His other awards include a Tony Award, Outer Circle Critics' Award, and three Drama Desk Awards. Arnold Aronson has taught at Columbia University since 1991 and has previously worked in the theater departments at Hunter College, The University of Michigan, Cornell University, and The University of Virginia. He served as the editor of Theatre Design & Technology from 1978 to 1988 and is the author of American Set Design. In 2007, he served as the first non-Czech General Commissioner of the Prague Quadrennial of Stage Design and Theatre Architecture."—