What makes set designer Mimi Lien a genius? Take a look

“What makes you a genius?� It’s an obnoxious question for us to ask, but theatrical set designer Mimi Lien graciously answered the night she was announced as a 2015 MacArthur Fellow. The prize comes with a $625,000 grant and the instant pressure of the label “intellectual hero.�

Amid the blitz of attention that followed, Lien took time to explain by email how set design is “no longer an ‘interpretation’ of the playwright’s stage directions but a physical and metaphorical container for the performance.�

“The first thing I think about is the spatial relationship with the audience — how are they situated in the space? Are they part of the event, or not? Should they feel inside the performance or outside of it?�

Lien tries to conceive more than a backdrop for the actors, she said. She’s creating a physical experience for everyone in the room.

“I’m interested in the three-dimensional space that the audience experiences, walks through, sits in — as well as what they are looking at,� she said.

Here, Lien shares three examples of work that expresses her ambitions as an artist and designer.

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