MiMI Lien
Mimi Lien is a designer of sets/environments for theater, 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 hails from New Haven, CT and is based in Brooklyn, NY.
Selected work includes Antony & Cleopatra (Metropolitan Opera / San Francisco Opera), Grounded (Metropolitan Opera / Washington National Opera), Parsifal (Bayreuther Festspiele), The Righteous (Santa Fe Opera), Die Zauberflöte (Staatsoper Berlin), Silent Night and Intelligence (Houston Grand Opera), The Comet/Poppea (The Industry/AMOC*/Lincoln Center), Pelléas et Mélisande (Cleveland Orchestra), 4 Nights of Dream (Japan Society/Tokyo Bunka Kaikan), Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway, Tony Award), Sweeney Todd (Broadway - Tony nomination), Fairview and An Octoroon (Soho Rep), Uncle Vanya (Lincoln Center Theater), True West (Roundabout), Taylor Mac’s A 24 Decade History of Popular Music (St. Ann’s Warehouse & international tour). Her stage designs have been presented in NYC and around the US at the Public Theater, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, The Kitchen, Berkeley Rep, A.R.T., Mark Taper Forum, Wilma Theater, Longwharf Theatre, Goodman Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, and Alliance Theatre, among others.
Her large-scale public artworks include The GREEN (2021, New York), a public space intervention commissioned by Lincoln Center; PARADE (2022, Toronto), a conveyor-belt installation commissioned by The Bentway Conservancy; MODEL HOME (2017, San Diego), a performance installation utilizing a 60-ft crane; and 2x4 tree (2016), a kinetic sculpture commissioned by the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.
Her design work has been exhibited in the Prague Quadrennial, and her sculpture work was featured in the exhibition, LANDSCAPES OF QUARANTINE, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture.
She is the recipient of the Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center Theater, Bessie Award, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Award, and an OBIE Award for sustained excellence.
Mimi received a B.A. in Architecture from Yale University (1997) and an M.F.A. in Stage Design from NYU (2003).
She is a co-founder of the Brooklyn, NY performance space JACK.
AWARDS
2024 Elliott Norton Award | Boston Theatre Critics Association | Outstanding Design for GATSBY
2023 TONY Award Nomination | American Theatre Wing | Set Design for Sweeney Todd
2023 Alfred Drake Award | Brooklyn College | for significant contributions to the American Theater
2020 Edwin Booth Award | CUNY Doctoral Theatre Students’ Association | for significant impact on Theatre & Performance in NYC
2020 Elliott Norton Award | Boston Theatre Critics Association | Outstanding Design for Moby-Dick
2019 Ruth Morley Design Award | League of Professional Theater Women
2018 Bessie Award - Visual Design for MEMOIRS OF A UNICORN
2017 TONY Award - Set Design for NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
2016 Hewes Design Award / American Theatre Wing - Set Design for JOHN
2015 MacArthur Fellowship
2015 Lincoln Center Theater / Joan Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity - PRELUDES and THE OLDEST BOY
2015 LA Drama Critics Circle Award - Distinguished Achievement in Set Design for APPROPRIATE
2015 Drama Desk Award Nomination - Set Design for An Octoroon
2014 Suzi Bass Award Nomination - Outstanding Scenic Design for Warrior Class
2014 Hewes Design Award Nomination - An Octoroon and Stop Hitting Yourself
2014 Lucille Lortel Award - Set Design for NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
2013 Hewes Design Award / American Theatre Wing - Set Design for NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
2013 Drama Desk Award Nomination - The Whale
2012 OBIE Award - Sustained Excellence in Set Design
2012 Audelco Award Nomination - Milk Like Sugar
2011 Bay Area Critics Circle Nomination - Strange Devices From the Distant West
2010 Barrymore Award Nomination - Becky Shaw and Welcome to Yuba City
2007 TCG/NEA Career Development Program
2008 Hewes Design Award Nomination - Queens Boulevard
2008 Barrymore Award Nomination – Eurydice, Wilma Theater
2007 Barrymore Award Nomination - Galileo
2005 Barrymore Award - OUTRAGE