Jo Mielziner Stage Designs 1960's-1970's 

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45. A SHORT HAPPY LIFE [1961]

This two act drama by A. E. Hotchner was a dramatization from the works of Ernest Hemingway. Mielziner created both the settings and the lighting for the production which opened in Seattle in the fall of 1961 and closed in LA a few weeks later. This design shows Mielziner’s wonderful technique in rendering lighting effects, an important part of his design for this play. The cast of the play included Rod Steiger, Keir Dullea, and Salome Jens.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 46. 

46. A SHORT HAPPY LIFE [1961]

Hotchner’s adaptation of Hemingway’s stories was episodic and Mielziner worked to reduce physical forms and stage properties to a minimum. This design appears in his book Designing for the Theatre in which he states: "Most of the visual scenery was either projected in symbolic motifs or painted in the same style to minimize any sense of sudden changes of scene."

Courtesy of Jonathan Christman NFS 

47. THE MILK TRAIN DOESN’T STOP HERE ANYMORE [1963]

Working once again in Tennessee Williams territory, Mielziner stripped away all fussy details from the heroine’s Italian villa to provide a simple unit set from which he evolved several exteriors and interiors using lighting to shift from scene to scene.

Courtesy of Paul Stiga NFS 

48. AFTER THE FALL [1964]

A series of platforms and steps comprised the scenery for Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, giving it a functional, high tech appearance. It was the opening production at the ANTA-Washington Square Theatre in Greenwich Village which Mielziner designed as the prototype for the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln Center.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

49. THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT: COSTUME [1964]

Jo Mielziner writes in Designing for The Theatre: "The last production planned (but not completed) by Elia Kazan and Robert Whitehead for the Lincoln Center repertory company was a revival of The Madwoman of Chaillot. It had been some years since I had had the leisure to take on the added responsibility of designing the costumes as well as the settings and lighting of a production. What opportunity could have been more challenging and delightful than that of providing costumes for both the Madwoman of Chaillot and the Madwoman of Passy!"

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

50. THAT SUMMER – THAT FALL [1967]

Frank Gilroy based That Summer – That Fall on Phèdre. For it Mielziner provided "the twilight of a handball court and the oppressive clutter of a passion-drained room to accommodate moodily all of the things that aren’t said." The design is for Act II, scene 5. The play had only a brief run even though the cast included Irene Papas, Jon Voight and Tyne Daly.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

51. POSSIBILITIES [1968]

Possibilities by Arthur Pittman takes place over three decades. The play was an unqualified failure but the two designs for projections which silhouette fire escapes and fences against the evening and night sky, although telling us little about the play, are both haunting and evocative.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC Night design NFS 

When the audience entered the theatre to see the musical 1776, what they saw was a shuttered and angled set that protruded over the stage, which seemed to open and shut magically to reveal the scenes. Because this musical did not have extensive choreography, Mielziner was not required to leave a large expanse of empty stage to accommodate dancers.

Courtesy of the estate of Jo Mielziner (Reproduction) NFS 

53. LOOK TO THE LILIES [1970]

Based on William Barrett’s popular novel Lilies of the Field, Look to the Lilies" was a musical with lots of heart and spirit. The story is set in New Mexico and concerns a group of German nuns, headed by a dauntless Mother Superior played by Shirley Booth, who enlist an on-the-run African American man to help them build a chapel for the local community. Mielziner’s desert toned sets used projections, scrims and particularly vivid lighting to create the atmosphere and mood of the desert Southwest. The climax to the show was the completed adobe chapel shown in this design. Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC 

Miller’s play was first presented in 1953 when it was directed by Jed Harris. These designs are for John Berry’s 1972 production at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theatre, a theatre Mielziner had designed nearly a decade earlier. In his sets he used projections and made maximum use of lighting to create place and mood. Top: Proctor’s House Middle: The Woods Bottom: The Rev. Parris’ House

Courtesy of Jo Anne and Harold Tedford NFS 

55. DESIGN FOR FORUM, LINCOLN CENTER

This is a preliminary sketch for a small theatre in Lincoln Center. After he developed the design the space was included in the Vivian Beaumont Theatre building as the Forum, an Off-Broadway space, seating 299 people in a permanent thrust arrangement. It is now named the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre.

Courtesy of Richard Stoddard Performing Arts Books, NYC