Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2006 - 71

book
reviews
Arnold Wengrow

editor

The Designs of Ming Cho Lee
by Delbert Unruh
Syracuse, NY: United States Institute for Theatre Technology, 2006.
112pp. ISBN: 1933348100, paper, $35.00 (USITT members, $30.00)
Reviewed by Beeb Salzer
Don't waste time reading this review, go right out and buy the book. If
you are a teacher, require it for your students.
If you are still reading, a number of disclaimers are in order. You are
reading the journal of USITT and this monograph is published by USITT. Design and editorial help were provided by the same team that produces this
journal. The author and I are both contributing editors of this journal. I am
quoted a couple of times in the book. And for years I have known and admired Ming Cho Lee. When I say years, I mean lots of years. Both of us had
models in an exhibition and competition for scene designers under age
thirty-five at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York. Do the
math. Ming, of course, won the competition. Digging out this information, I see that the admission to the museum then was twenty-five cents.

4-c Ad/option

THEATRE

DESIGN

TECHNOLOGY
SUMMER

2006

I'm sure that author
Delbert Unruh would agree that
the first thing one does with this
book is to look at the pictures.
Many of the sets are familiar
from other publications but
here they are joined by many
others in a visual feast. Mostly
presented in chronological order, they are a record of an
artist's development, and possibly of more importance, they
show that Ming's development
has created much of the aesthetic of our contemporary theatre. More
than that, Ming's working techniques are now widespread because of his
influence on numerous assistants and students.
An obvious trajectory is revealed. Ming's first sketches for Here's
Where I Belong in 1968 are Mielzineresque. Ten
years later he is still doing some sensitive atmospheric
renderings such as the one for Angel. But these years
are crossover years when sketches are giving way to
models. From 1968 on there are no sketches published except for story boards and a sketch for The
Tempest in 1989.
I have thought for many years that the change
from renderings to models was an unconscious reaction to the transcendence of film and then television, which were two-dimensional experiences.
Theatre is three-dimensional and to compete, theatre sets were becoming less painterly and more
dimensional. It makes sense then for sets to be designed by a three-dimensional technique.
A further change takes place with Ming's
models getting smaller and smaller. Early on, the
models are half inch but they soon become quarter
inch. Even eighth-inch ones appear, such as the detailed model for Rashomon in 1996. Sometimes
designers do several eighth-inch models to study
problems and then do detailed quarter-inch models. From the published photo here, no further detail was needed. I am just guessing but a small
model would be easier for Ming to get to Graz, Austria, where the play was done. And any busy designer would play "shrink the model" when stored

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2006