Tag Archive: Tony Awards

  1. Six Yalies take home Tony Awards

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    Six Yalies — including one professor — were honored at the 67th Annual Tony Awards last night, an annual ceremony that recognizes outstanding achievement in theatre. The winners are listed below:

    School of Drama professor Ming Cho Lee received a lifetime achievement award for his work in scenic design.

    Christopher Durang DRA ’74 took home the award for “Best Play” for authoring “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” a humorous and contemporary exploration of Russian plays by Anton Chekhov — and which originally featured his classmate, Sigourney Weaver DRA ’76 as “Masha.”

    Costume designer William Ivey Long DRA ’75 received his 13th nomination and sixth Tony Award for his work on “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” His other wins include designing the costumes for “Nine,” “The Producers,” and “Hairspray.”

    Courtney B. Vance DRA ’86 won “Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play” for “Lucky Guy,” a drama about the real life of a New York City tabloid reporter who brings to light police brutality toward a Haitian man, and which starred 2011 Class Day speaker Tom Hanks.

    John Lee Beatty DRA ’73 won the award “Best Scenic Design of a Play” for his work on the revolving, detailed set of “The Nance.”

    Playwright Larry Kramer ’57 received the Isabelle Stevenson Award — an honor given to a member of the theater community dedicated to humanitarian efforts — for his work cofounding the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and other HIV/AIDS-related services.

    Correction: June 16

    A previous version of this article mistakenly stated that “Lucky Guy” is about police brutality toward a Haitian woman. 

  2. Drama professor to receive lifetime Tony Award

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    Former Design Department Chair for the Yale School of Drama Ming Cho Lee will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the 67th annual Tony Awards this June.

    The 82-year-old long-time Yale professor has been with the School of Drama since 1969 and is the current Donald M. Oenslager Professor of Design. In addition to designing numerous shows both on and off Broadway, Lee designed the Metropolitan Opera as well as numerous operas, ballet and theater stages.  He was has previously received the Tony Award for best scenic design, and has been honored with the Drama Desk and Helen Hayes awards.

    “The role of the designer in presentational theatre is far more exciting than the designing of pictures,” Lee told Theater Magazine in 1970. “It is the determination of an environment.”

    Lee will accept the accolade at the Tony Awards on June 9.