Ming Cho Lee: A Life in Design [Hardcover]

Winner of the 2014 George Freedley Memorial award.

A gorgeous volume [that] celebrates the legacy of Lee. –Time Out New York

Whether working in theater, opera or dance, Ming Cho Lee has made an incalculable contribution to the performing arts in America. This elegant coffee table book, written by Arnold Aronson, pays tribute in prose and photographs to his singular career. –Los Angeles Times

A comprehensive, compassionate and intelligent book... A book of major importance, a must-read for all theatre folk, indeed for anyone drawn to the mysteries of making art. Theatre Design & Technology

Ming Cho Lee is not only one of the most important American designers of the twentieth century, but one of the most significant influences on American theatre. As a designer, he drew upon his training in Chinese watercolor, the aesthetics of his mentors, Jo Mielziner and Boris Aronson, and the post-war developments in German design to develop a new approach to stage design that radically altered American scenography. He broke new ground, combined existing motifs in startling new ways and continued to explore new ideas throughout his entire career. Lee introduced a sculptural style with soaring verticality that had been largely unknown to American stages. The painterly image was replaced with a decidedly modern and industrial scenic vocabulary that emphasized stage-as-stage.

Lee has designed more than 300 productions of theatre, opera and dance, beginning with his first student work,The Silver Whistleat Occidental College in 1952, through his last productions in 2005. Unlike his predecessors, Lee did not make his mark on Broadway. Rather, it was achieved through some forty productions with the New York Shakespeare Festival, including eleven seasons at the Delacorte Theater from its opening in 1962; thirteen productions for New York City Opera, beginning with its inaugural production at Lincoln Center;l3