THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 12, 1995 TAG: 9503140486
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
MING CHO LEE - widely considered America's most influential theater designer - recently prodded 400 thespians at a Norfolk conference to develop artistic integrity and become politically active.
Both are crucial, he said, to survival of the arts.
``Why is art and theater important for this society? Why do we need it? Why not go to Las Vegas, to theme park?
``More and more, theater has become like theme park, or spectacle. Probably, theater deserves to die, and be reborn. I think spectacle is humanly diminishing.
``I hate Disneyland. It looks real, but is all fake. It's not about life. That's why everyone has the same haircut in Disneyland. What is the difference between Disneyland and Communist China, where there are no individual voices?
``If we want to make everyone the same, that is not this country.
``Theater and the arts are our heritage. How do we know who we are, except through storytelling, great writing, great musical compositions of the past?
``In 1995, you can get connected to 1790. That is a life experience, without which we are nothing.''
The Shanghai native was speaking to a group of mostly young theater folk at Omni International Hotel, among the sites for the Southeastern Theater Conference, which brought 3,000 thespians to Norfolk earlier this month for workshops, auditions and other programs.
As he took to the podium, Lee was greeted by a deafening roar of applause. ``Ming Cho Lee is a legend,'' explained Dennis Wemm, a theater professor from Greenville (W.Va.) Stage College, who lured his students to the talk.
Lee charmed the group with amusing anecdotes, then made them the target for his message.
They knew that Lee, 64, practices what he preaches. He has crafted a major career in theater design without a single Broadway hit. He has won major awards, including a Tony in 1983 for ``K2,'' which placed actors convincingly on a mountain on stage.
Designers can't earn much of a salary, unless they land a Broadway hit, he said. ``And I had a wretched time on Broadway. I dislike working there,'' because the intent is commercial.
Lee has augmented his income by teaching design at Yale School of Drama since 1968. To be sure, it's more than a job. Teaching, including talks like the one he gave in Norfolk, help him keep up with new directions in design.
Also, ``I feel I should carry on the tradition,'' he said in an interview earlier that day. ``In that way, it creates a community of professionals.''
Lee told the group he was devastated that only 60 percent of his graduate school design students voted in the November elections.
``Well, it affects your life,'' he said, vehemently. ``Has theater become an ivory tower to escape into? Drove me crazy!
``I feel education is a public responsibility, as voting is a public responsibility. To develop many voices is also a responsibility.
``Politics cannot be left to the marketplace. We have to have as much missionary zeal for what we are doing as the Christian right, as people who believe there is only one truth in the world and want to make everyone fit their mold.
``Vote! Then, I think the arts could be so much healthier.''
Lee's influence has permeated the field. In the 1985 book, ``American Set Design,'' Lee was among 11 designers profiled. Of the others, six were his students or assistants.
His designs are featured through May 26 in an exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Mel Gussow, theater critic for The New York Times, wrote in the brochure that Lee is ``the enemy of decoration, of effects, of anything that detracts or distracts from the drama.''
He began designing sets soon after he came to America from China in 1949. In 1962, he became resident designer for the New York Shakespeare Festival. His minimalist, iconic 1964 set for a festival production of ``Electra'' - inspired in part by Isamu Noguchi's primitive, sculptural sets for Martha Graham's dances - was the first of several pioneering designs that altered the look of contemporary theater.
In 1967, when Lee designed the first production of the musical ``Hair,'' he crafted a collage of posters and popular images of the day. The collage idea became one of his hallmarks, and has been widely aped.
Lee also is known for his use of pipe scaffolding. He pioneered the material on stage in America, then was much mimicked. The modern-looking scaffolds are very functional - as a metal framework to be exposed, or as a mount for set pieces.
Plus, said Lee, a fan of modern art, ``lines cutting across planes are interesting for me.''
Yet, he told the group, ``talking about design - at least, at this point in my life - becomes a little bit boring to me. What's more important to me is that all of you are here.
``This conference is so big. I am amazed at the amount of people that have something to do with theater.
``In some ways, we are saying something to the Newt Gingriches of the world: `You guys are missing something. There is something very important about what we are doing.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Ming Cho Lee says artistic integrity and political activity by those
in the theater is crucial to survival of the arts.
by CNB