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Ming Cho Lee (Chinese: 李名覺; pinyin: Lǐ Míngjué; October 3, 1930 – October 23, 2020) was a Chinese-American theatrical set designer and professor at the Yale School of Drama.

Personal life

Lee was born on Oct. 3, 1930, in Shanghai, China to Lee Tsu Fa and Tang Ing. Lee, whose father (Lee Tsu Fa) was a Yale University graduate (1918), moved to the United States in 1949 and attended Occidental College.

Lee married Elizabeth (Rapport) Lee in 1958. They had three sons Richard, Christopher, and David.

Career

Lee first worked on Broadway as a second assistant set designer to Jo Mielziner on The Most Happy Fella in 1956. His first Broadway play as Scenic Designer was The Moon Besieged in 1962; he went on to design the sets for over 20 Broadway shows, including Mother Courage and Her Children, King Lear, The Glass Menagerie, The Shadow Box, and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

He also designed sets for opera (including eight productions for the Metropolitan Opera and thirteen for the New York City Opera, ballet, and regional theatres such as Arena Stage, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Guthrie Theater.

He designed over 30 productions for Joseph Papp at The Public Theater, including the original Off-Broadway production of Hair (musical). Starting in 1969, Lee taught at the Yale School of Drama, where he was co-chair of the Design Department. In February 2017, he announced that he would be retiring at the end of the fall semester. He was on the Board of Directors for The Actors Center in Manhattan. Lee is the subject of Ming Cho Lee: A Life in Design by Arnold Aronson, which was published by TCG Books in 2014. In 2013, the Yale school of Architecture and School of Drama staged a retrospective of his work at the architecture gallery.

Awards and honors

• Lee was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1998.

• He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2002.

• In 1995, he won the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence for his consistent and valuable contributions to the theatrical community.

• He won the Tony Award in 1983 for the play K2.

• Lee was awarded a lifetime achievement Tony Award in 2013.

• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design

• The Helen Hayes Award:

• Six awards for Outstanding Set Design, Resident Production, from 1996-2002.
• The Helen Hayes Tribute Award (2006)

See also

• Chinese in New York City

References

1. New York Times - "Ming Cho Lee, Fabled Set Designer, Is Dead at 90"
2. "Ming Cho-Lee Biography". filmreference.com.
3. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (26 October 2020). "Ming Cho Lee, Fabled Set Designer, Is Dead at 90". New York Times. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
4. "Ming Cho Lee to Depart Yale School of Drama". AMERICAN THEATRE. Theatre Communications Group. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
5. "'Ming Cho Lee: A Life in Design' Celebrates the Designer's Work". AMERICAN THEATRE. 19 September 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
6. "Exhibition celebrates Yale's Ming Cho Lee, 'dean of American set design'". News Yale. Yale University.
7. Yale University Library - Guide to the Lloyd Richards Papers
8. Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
9. "95".

Bibliography

• Aronson, Arnold. Ming Cho Lee: A Life in Design. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2014. ISBN 9781559364614

External links

• Yale Bulletin biography, March 21, 2003
• AILF Immigrant Achievement Award biography, 1999
• Ming Cho Lee at the Internet Broadway Database
• Costume and Scenic Design Collection at the Harry Ransom Center

• 1930 births
• American scenic designers
• 2020 deaths
• Opera designers
• Special Tony Award recipients
• Tony Award winners
• United States National Medal of Arts recipients
• David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University faculty
• Artists from Shanghai
• Chinese emigrants to the United States
• Occidental College alumni