School Notes: David Geffen School of Drama
May/June 2013

Carlotta Festival debuts new work

The School of Drama’s eighth annual Carlotta Festival of New Plays, which presents fully produced new work by the graduating class of playwrights in rotating repertory, takes the stage at the Iseman Theater May 6–14. This year’s plays are Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman ’13MFA, directed by Margot Bordelon ’13MFA; Lottie in the Late Afternoon by Amelia Roper ’13MFA, directed by Ethan Heard ’13MFA; and House Beast by Justin Taylor ’13MFA, directed by Jack Tamburri ’13MFA. The Carlotta Festival is named for playwright Eugene O’Neill’s widow, Carlotta Monterey, who chose Yale University Press as the publisher of her late husband’s masterpiece Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The proceeds from this publication support playwriting at Yale University.

Ming Cho Lee to receive honorary Tony

Ming Cho Lee, the Donald Oenslager Professor of Design at Yale School of Drama, who chaired or cochaired the design department for more than four decades, will be honored with a special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award at the ceremony held on June 9 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.  He won his first Tony Award in 1983 for the scenic design of K2 on Broadway. 

Ming Cho Lee has designed nationally and internationally for 50 years, for opera, dance, Broadway, and regional theater, and is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the highest national award given in the arts. Other awards include the Mayor’s Award for Arts and Culture; the Outer Critics’ Circle and Drama Desk Awards, among many others from the theater and Chinese communities; and five honorary degrees. His work has been shown in a retrospective at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He serves as a member of the board of the New Forty Second Street, Inc., as well as that of the Alliance for the Development of Theatre Artists, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, and many others.