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.
In 2015, she was named a MacArthur Fellow, and is the first stage designer ever to achieve this distinction. Mimi received the 2017 Tony Award for her design of Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway.
Selected work includes Grounded (Metropolitan Opera and Washington National Opera), Parsifal (Bayreuther Festspiele), The Righteous (Santa Fe Opera), Intelligence (Houston Grand Opera), The Comet/Poppea (Prototype/The Industry/AMOC*), Die Zauberflöte (Staatsoper Berlin), Sweeney Todd (Broadway – Tony nomination), Fairview and An Octoroon (Soho Rep), Black Mountain Songs (BAM), Pelléas et Mélisande (Cleveland Orchestra), 4 Nights of Dream (Japan Society/Tokyo Bunka Kaikan). Her stage designs have been presented in New York and around the country 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, Portland Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, and Playmakers Rep, 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 2×4 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.
Selected awards include a Bessie Award, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award, and an OBIE Award for sustained excellence.
Mimi is a co-founder of the Brooklyn performance/art space, JACK.