Jules Fisher and Jennifer Tipton to Receive Ming Cho Lee Award

The Henry Hewes Design Awards committee today announced that legendary lighting designers Jules Fisher and Jennifer Tipton will each be honored with the Ming Cho Lee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Design, bestowed by the Henry Hewes Design Awards at the 58th annual event on October 24 in a livestream awards ceremony.

"In honoring Jules Fisher and Jennifer Tipton, both of whom have had a profound impact on the artistry, history, and innovation in the craft of illumination, we celebrate two pioneers who have given us so many important dramatic memories-and have lit the way for those who follow", said Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, chairman of the HHDA committee. "It gives me great pleasure in announcing that they are both being honored with the Ming Cho Lee Award for Lifetime Achievement in Design."

Jules Fisher

In a Broadway career spanning more than 50 years, Jules Fisher has conceived and designed productions for Broadway, film, the music industry, and digital animation. He has designed more than a hundred plays and musicals and has been honored with 9 Tony Awards and 21 nominations. The Henry Hewes Design Awards committee has honored him for 7 productions dating back to DANCIN' in 1978. Among his celebrated Broadway designs are the original versions of HAIR, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, PIPPIN, RAGTIME, BRING IN 'DA NOISE, BRING IN 'DA FUNK, ANGELS IN AMERICA, ASSASSINS, and the recent revival THE ICEMAN COMETH starring Denzel Washington.

His film lighting designs have been seen on DREAMGIRLS with director Bill Condon, on Rob Marshall's Best Picture winner CHICAGO and Richard Linklater's SCHOOL OF ROCK, among other projects. Evolving naturally into dramatic and fantastical lighting in the digital realm, his musical lighting scenes have been conceived for CG environments in the live-action BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, as well as development projects for DreamWorks Animation. (Link to full bio).

Jennifer Tipton

Tipton came to New York to study dance, after attending Cornell. Her interest in lighting began with a course in the subject at the American Dance Festival, Connecticut College. She has been awarded two "Bessies" and a Laurence Olivier Award for lighting dance; her work in that field includes pieces choreographed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jiri Kylian, Dana Reitz, Jerome Robbins, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, and Dan Wagoner, among many others.

In the theatre, she has won a Joseph Jefferson Award, a Kudo, a Drama-Logue Award, two American Theatre Wing Awards, an Obie, two Drama Desk Awards, the first for The Cherry Orchard and For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf; the second for Jerome Robbins' Broadway, and two Tonys for The Cherry Orchard and Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Ms. Tipton was recently nominated for a Tony Award for To Kill A Mocking Bird.

She is a recipient of six Henry Hewes Design Awards and teaches lighting design at the Yale University School of Drama. (Link to full bio).

About Ming Cho Lee

Legendary theatre designer Ming Cho Lee was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Henry Hewes Design Awards, and the award was renamed for him at that presentation ceremony. Lee, who designed more than 300 productions across the globe, received a Tony Award in 1983 for K2 and taught for 48 years at the Yale School of Drama. He was also the recipient of a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013.

Lee was honored with three other Henry Hewes Design Awards: the first for the 1964 production of Electra for Shakespeare in the Park, the second for Ergo in 1968 at The Public Theater, and the last for K2 in 1983, for which he also received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics' Circle Awards. Lee, who passed in 2020, was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1998 and received the National Medal of Arts in 2002.

About Henry Hewes Design Awards:

These annual awards honor designers for work in venues on Broadway, off Broadway and off-off Broadway, recognizing not only in such categories as Scenic Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design and Media Design but also "Notable Effects," which encompass music, puppetry, and other creative elements. All nominated designs must have originated in United States productions. The Henry Hewes Design Awards Committee annually considers more than 200 productions when making its nominations.

Known as the Maharam Awards at their inception in 1965, the Hewes Awards were later renamed the American Theatre Wing Design Awards in honor of the Wing's generous sponsorship. In 1999, they became the Henry Hewes Design Awards to honor noted critic Henry Hewes, who created and nurtured the awards until his death in 2006 at age 89.

The Henry Hewes Design Awards Committee includes theater critics Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, chair; David Barbour; David Cote; Naveen Kumar; Helen Shaw; and Martha Wade Steketee. Brittani Samuel observed the committee's 2022 deliberations and now serves as a full voting member. The awards are sponsored by the Henry Hewes Foundation for the Theater Arts.

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