Joseph Mielziner's Major Accomplishments

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Joseph Mielziner was a scenic designer who designed sets for hundreds of plays and musicals and whose remarkable career spanned from 1927 to 1989. His design has earned him an array of awards such as Tony’s and Donaldson awards. His work has permanently affected the art of stage design and influenced many other designers. Joseph Mielziner was a prominent designer who revolutionized the art of technical theatre. Joseph Mielziner spent his childhood in France but moved to the States in 1909. Mielziner’s father, Leo Mielziner, was a painter and so was Mielziner. Mielziner was an artist when he was young and his father encouraged both him and his brother Leo Mielziner Jr. to go to art school. In 1918, he began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He received two scholarships from Cesson Traveling …show more content…
From his revolutionary set designs to his astonishing amount of Tony’s, Mielziner left a legacy. Mielziner’s most iconic set design is his design for Death of a Salesman. His use of the transparent skeletal framework allowed for the show to have scenes from different parts of characters life all performed at the once. His portfolio is very diverse, from him doing the design for a Shakespearean classic like Hamlet, a tragedy like Death of a Salesman, or him doing comedies like Annie Get Your Gun. Over the course of his lifetime, he has been nominated for twelve Tony’s and won seven. He won Tony’s for scenic design for Child’s Play, The King and I, The Innocents, and Anne of the Thousand Days. He also won five Donaldson Awards and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding set design. He has designed many theaters that carry his legacy such as the Los Angeles Music Center, the Mark Taper Forum Theater, the Vivian Beaumont, and even a theater in the White House. Towards the end of his life in 1964, he was a prominent chairman of the American Theater Planning Board and was a specialist in theatrical