STAGE TUBE: I AM THEATRE Project - Mimi Lien

BroadwayWorld.com is excited to share a new weekly series developed by the Theatre Communications Group! This week set designer Mimi Lien shares pivotal moments in her theatre career and why the arts matter to her!

Mimi Lien is a designer of sets/environments for theater, dance, and opera. She was born in New Haven, CT, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Having arrived at set design from a background in architecture, her work often focuses on the interaction between audience/environment and object/performer. Some favorite designs include BORN BAD (Soho Rep), JUDGMENT DAY (Bard Summerscape), NEIGHBORS (The Public Theater), QUEENS BLVD (Signature Theatre), STRANGE DEVICES FROM THE DISTANT WEST (Berkeley Rep), WELCOME TO YUBA CITY (Pig Iron), IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER (Alliance Theater), THE LESS WE TALK (Hoi Polloi), and Becky Shaw (The Wilma Theater). Mimi is an artistic associate with Pig Iron Theatre Company and The Civilians, resident designer at BalletTech, and she was a semifinalist in the Ring Award competition for opera design in Graz, Austria . Her work has been recognized by a Barrymore Award, three Barrymore nominations, American Theatre Wing Hewes Design Award nomination, Bay Area Critics Circle nomination, and she was a recipient of the 2007-2009 NEA/TCG Career Development Program. Her design for LOVE UNPUNISHED (Pig Iron) was presented in the 2011 Prague Quadrennial, and her sculpture work was featured in the recent exhibition, Landscapes of Quarantine, at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. Mimi is originally from Cheshire, Connecticut.

I AM THEATRE spotlights the stories of theatre practitioners, in their own words. With 50 videos over the next 50 weeks, TCG is celebrating its 50th anniversary by sharing stories from a diverse group of people who are creating, supporting, and engaging with theatre. YOU ARE THEATRE: We want to hear your stories! TCG will release a new video each week of individuals sharing pivotal moments in theatre - and hope they will inspire you to tell your stories too. Join us as we seek to raise the international awareness of the depth, diversity and impact of the theatre field. WE ARE THEATRE! Today, not-for-profit professional theatres in the U.S. employ 130,000 people annually, inspire more than 30 million attendees and contribute $2 billion directly to the U.S. economy. What if thousands of theatre artists across the world posted their own video testimonies of why they do what they do and why theatre matters? How might that transform communities' awareness of our work? Please share the stories we've recorded, and we'll share the videos you make, and together we'll testify in a voIce That everyone will hear...I AM THEATRE. YOU ARE THEATRE. WE ARE THEATRE!

For 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 13,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the US Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. www.tcg.org