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STAGE DESIGNS by Louis Botto
Two exhibitions of interest to theatre-goers have been mounted by the New York Library for the Performing Arts. Currently on view at the Amsertdam Gallery (40 Lincoln Center Plaza_ through May 20, 1995, is Onstage: A Century of African American Stage Design. On view are original set models, costumes, props, scenery, and costume rendering, correspondence, posters, programs, and photographs illustrating the contributions of African American designers from the turn of the century to today. The Library is also offering a series of free symposia focusing on the history of early black theatre and the aesthetics of design as a collaborative art

From February 28 through May 25, 1995, Sets by Ming Cho Lee, and exhibition of work by the acclaimed set designer, will be on view at the Library's Vincent Astor Gallery. Mr. Lee, who created a series of groundbreaking designs for the New York Shakespeare Festival's Delacorte Theater and won a Tony Award in 1983 for his unforgettable mountain setting for the play K2, continues to produce startling and innovative scenery for productions at the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City 

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[[photo]]
Left: From Onstage: A Century of African American Set Design--a performer wearing a costume designed by Geoffrey Holder for the 1978 Broadway musical Timbuktu. Above: From Sets by Ming Cho Lee, a detail of the designer's set for NYSF's 1972 Much Ado about Nothing

Opera, countless Broadway productions and most of the country's major regional theatres.

Since 1969 Lee has served as a Chairman of the design Department at the Yale School of Drama, where he has influenced a generation of designers, many of whom are now among the most prominent artists working in the field.

The exhibition includes a broad selection of models and sketches from the wise variety of productions he has designed, such as Henry IV produced in 1972 at the Mark Taper Forum; Jack MacGowran in the Works of Samuel Becket, a 1970 New York Shakespeare Festival presentation; Nine Songs, a 1993 design for Taipei's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre; and The Woman Warrior, produced last season at the Berkely Repertory Theatre.

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 A PASSION FOR SONDHEIM
ALL THAT JAZZ Some of today's preeminent jazz artists--Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Nancy Wilson, Jim Hall and others--offer dazzling performances on Color and Light: Sketches on Sondheim (Sony Classical), a recording of jazz interpretations of Stephen Sondheim songs that span the composer/lyricist's 30-year career. A special feature is Sondheim as pianist in his first ever recording of "They Asked Me Why I Believe in You," written for an unproduced 1950's TV special. Sondheim performs the song first, followed by Herbie Hancock's jazz variations.

The idea for the project came from arranger/producer Miles Goodman and guitarist/producer Oscar Castro-Neves, who feels that the recording gives people a chance to hear Sondheim music out of the context of a play or soundtrack.

ANYONE CAN WHISTLE AGAIN Sondheim fans who missed the Broadway production of Anyone Can Whistle (written with Arthur Laurents) [[photo]] [[photo caption: Madeline Kahn will perform Anyone Can Whistle in concert]] in 1964, now have the opportunity to see a concert version of the musical at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, April 8, 1995.  Starring Madeline Kahn and Bernadette Peters, the concert is directed by Herbert ross (who choreographed the original production) and is produced by Peter Bogyo. Angela Lansbury, who starred in the original production, is serving as narrator and hostess of the evening. Proceeds from the event will benefit Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the nation's oldest and largest AIDS organization providing direct services for men, women and children with HIV and AIDS in N.Y.C. and education and advocacy worldwide. tickets: (2122) 337-1913--Louis Botto

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