The 2020 Edwin Booth Award
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Honoring Mimi lien
Falling Wall
Production Images (Gallery)
Models & Research (Gallery)
Artistic Tribute
Director / Soho Rep AD Sarah Benson
Academic Tribute
Footnote: Alison Walls
Drafting (PDFs)
Honoring
Mimi Lien
The Doctoral Theatre Students’ Association at the CUNY Graduate Center presents the 2020 Edwin Booth Award to New York designer Mimi Lien.
The Edwin Booth Award is given annually by the DTSA to honor a person, organization, or company for their outstanding contribution to the NYC theatre community, and to promote integration of professional and academic theatre.
Mimi Lien designs sets and environments for theatre, dance, and opera. Arriving at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/environment and object/performer. She is co-founder of JACK, the inclusion-minded performance space in Brooklyn; sits on the Board of Directors at Soho Rep; and is a core company member of Pig Iron Theatre Company (Philadelphia), where she was recently the lead artist of SUPERTERRANEAN (‘19), the company's epic piece of "visual theatre."
Her visual dramaturgy has been central to some of the most celebrated shows in recent NYC history, including Fairview, An Octoroon, Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, John, and Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812. Her work has been recognized with an Obie Award, Hewes Design Award, Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Bessie Award, and the MacArthur Fellowship.
This award is usually conferred during a live ceremony in collaboration with the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. In response to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, it has been transformed into an enduring online resource for artists and academics alike.
Past Honorees
- 2019 – Ishmael Houston-Jones
- 2018 – Young Jean Lee
- 2017 – Taylor Mac
- 2016 – Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir
- 2015 – María Irene Fornés
- 2014 – Elevator Repair Service
- 2013 – Woodie King Jr.
- 2012 – Split Britches
- 2011 – Stephen Sondheim
- 2010 – Charles Mee
- 2009 – Judith Malina
- 2008 – Karen Finley
- 2007 – Mabou Mines
- 2006 – HERE Arts Center
- 2005 – Paula Vogel
- 2004 – The Classical Theatre of Harlem
- 2003 – The New York Theatre Workshop
- 2002 – Tony Kushner
- 2001 – Anne Bogart and The S.I.T.I. Company
- 2000 – Performance Space 122
- 1999 – Dixon Place
- 1998 – Hal Prince
- 1997 – Richard Foreman
- 1996 – The Brooklyn Academy of Music
- 1995 – Anne Hamburger and En Garde Arts
- 1994 – JoAnne Akalaitis
- 1993 – The Wooster Group
- 1992 – Arthur Miller
- 1991 – Al Hirschfeld
- 1990 – Robert Whitehead
- 1989 – Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival
- 1988 – The Ridiculous Theatrical Company
- 1987 – Joseph Chaiken
- 1986 – Stanley Kauffmann
- 1985 – The Negro Ensemble Company
- 1984 – Ellen Stewart
- 1983 – The Royal Shakespeare Company
Citation:
Applebaum, Jessica, Nicolas Benaceraf, Stephen Cedars, Justin Johnson, Mimi Lien, Sarah Lucie, Dohyun Gracia Shin, Christine Renee Snyder, and Alison Walls. “The 2020 Edwin Booth Award Honoring Mimi Lien.” May 29, 2020.
Superterranean
By Pig iron theatre company
Concept/Scenario/Set Design:
Mimi Lien
Scenario/Direction:
Dan Rothenberg
Composer/Sound:
Lea Bertucci
Lights:
Barbara Samuels
Costume:
Olivera Gajic
Venue:
2300 Arena, Philadelphia
Genre:
Visual Theatre
Production Website
Superterranean is a new work of visual theatre driven by Mimi Lien’s fascinations with urban infrastructure acting in concert with the human body.
Artistic Tributes
Performer/Creator Jennifer Kidwell
Performer/Creator Tony Torn
Performer/Creator Evelyn Chen
Performer/Creator Chelsea Murphy
Performer/Creator Isaac Calvin
Lighting Designer Barbara Samuels
Academic Tribute
Footnote: Sarah Lucie
Production Videos
SUPERTERRANEAN Clip 1
SUPERTERRANEAN Clip 2
2019 Trailer
Process: Experiments in Authorship
Production Images (Gallery)
From the Cutting Room Floor: 3D Computer Animation of Moving Audience
Models (Gallery)
Early Models (Gallery)
Visual Research (Gallery)
NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
By Dave Malloy
Direction:
Rachel Chavkin
Environment Design:
Mimi Lien
Costume:
Paloma Young
Lights:
Bradley King
Sound:
Nicholas Pope
Venues:
Ars Nova (2012), Kazino Tent (2013), American Repertory Theater (2015), Imperial Theatre Broadway (2016)
Genre:
Musical Theatre
Production Website
Inspired by a 70-page slice of War and Peace, Great Comet’s transformative environmental staging brings us just inches from Tolstoy’s brash young lovers as they light up Moscow in a “heaven sent fireball” (NY Times) of romance and passion.
Artistic Tributes
Director Rachel Chavkin
Technical Supervisor Sam Ellis
Academic Tribute
Footnote: Christine Renee Snyder
Production Images
Broadway 2016 (Gallery)
A.R.T. 2015
Ars Nova 2012
The Tent (Kazino) 2013
Artistic Tribute
Director/Pig Iron AD Dan Rothenberg
Other Videos
Mimi Lien & Beowolf Boritt in “Working in the Theatre: Scenic Design” by The American Theatre Wing
Set Designer Mimi Lien: 2015 MacArthur Fellow
An Interview with Mimi Lien
JACK
Brooklyn Performance Venue (est. 2012)
Co-Directors:
Jordana De La Cruz & Alec Duffy
Co-Founders:
Alec Duffy, Mimi Lien, Steven Leffue, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., Nikaury Rodriguez, Prentice Onayemi, Ike Ufomadu, Amy Laird Webb, Jennifer Kidwell & Andreea Mincic
JACK 1.0:
505 ½ Waverly Ave, Brooklyn
JACK 2.0:
18 Putnam Ave, Brooklyn
Website
JACK's mission is to fuel experiments in art and activism, collaborating with adventurous artists and our neighbors in Brooklyn to bring about a just and vibrant society.
Images (Gallery)
JACK 2.0 Fundraising Video
Critical Tribute (PDF)
Loren Novek
Artistic Tributes
Co-Founder/Co-Director Alec Duffy - 1
Co-Founder/Co-Director Alec Duffy - 2
Press Articles (PDFs)
Do You Know Jack?
Eliza Brent
Shifting Perspectives: Stage Designer Mimi Lien
Marcina Zaccaria
Interview: JACK, Sanctuary of Art and Activism
Mei Ann Teo
Building Trust After Inclusivity Failed
Helen Shaw
An Interview with Mimi Lien
Victoria Myers
Brooklyn Theater Companies Adjust to Uncertain Times during COVID-19 CRISIS
Kevin Duggan
Trophy Room
Award: 2020 Edwin Booth Award
Recipient:
Mimi Lien
Presented by Booth Committee on behalf of the Doctoral Theatre Students’ Association
PhD Program in Theatre & Performance, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Conferred on May 29th, 2020
Booth Committee:
Jess Applebaum, Nic Benacerraf (chair), Stephen Cedars, Sarah Lucie, Dohyun Gracia Shin, Christine Renee Snyder, Alison Walls
Award Unboxing Video
Full HowlRound Ceremony 5/29
Creative Process
The 2020 Booth Award is made possible by gracious support from:
Prof. Marvin Carlson, the Sidney E. Cohn Chair in Theatre
Prof. David Savran, the Vera Mowry Roberts Chair in Theatre
Prof. Jean Graham-Jones, the Lucille Lortel Chair in Theatre
Special thanks to: Dr. Frank Hentschker, Prof. Peter Eckersall, Prof. Erika Lin, Patricia Goodson, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Soho Rep, Theatre for a New Audience, Kate Fry, Andrea Benacerraf
The Ph.D. Program in Theatre and Performance is one of the leading doctoral theatre programs in the United States, offering students a rigorous grounding in the theory, history, and criticism of theatre studies, while encouraging interdisciplinary thinking. The program embraces the rich cultural resources of New York City, with its professional theatre specialists, institutions, and myriad productions, as well as its library and museum facilities and its archives and private collections. Although the program emphasizes academic studies, attempts are made to form alliances of understanding between scholars and practitioners whenever possible.