Tony Award Winner Mimi Lien Shares Her Set Design Process for Marks of RED

Tony Award winning scenic designer, Mimi Lien, pushed the boundaries of contemporary scenic design for TRIBE Arts Collective’s, Marks of RED. Mimi’s set is an immersive environment. Soft yet tensile, the striking piece (engineered with seamed and tensioned stretch fabric), envelops the performers and gives the impression that they are being held and nurtured within the bounding curves of a warm, red womb.

 

 

In this exclusive interview, Mimi Lien details how her awe-inspiring experimental design came to life. From humble beginnings as a dollar store durag in a cardboard model box, to a full-scale piece in-situ, Mimi collaborated with Rose Brand custom curtain and backdrop engineers & fabricators to build a stage-enveloping womb from red Boost stretch fabric.

 

Marks of RED is the third entry in acclaimed choreographer Shamel Pitts’ RED series. The multimedia performance draws from Afrofuturism and magical realism. The central themes are Black embodiment, ancestry, aliveness, and human connection. Early conversations with Pitts helped shape the concept of the scenic design as a womb space.

 

“Part of my intention was to create a space that was enveloping, that would feel like you were embraced on the inside.”

- Mimi Lien

 

The primary references are womb, blood, motherhood, ancestral lineage. Sonogram imagery inspired the shaping and curvature of the piece. Like blood pumping throughout the body, dancers emerge from elliptical openings in the wings akin to the valves of the heart. In conjunction with Sarai Fraizer and Lucca Del Carlo’s lighting and projection design, they pulse with vivacity into the womb space.

 

 

Mimi’s design process starts with finding a material that is consistent with the narrative of the show. Initially, she set out to find red pantyhose at the dollar store, but stumbled upon a red durag. It already had the curvature, tension, and softness of the womb space she had in mind.

 

In a ¼” model box, Mimi pinned the durag to the shape she had envisioned, and it became the perfect starting point.

 

 

The real challenge was turning this scale model into a fully-fledged single piece of shaped fabric. Having worked with Rose Brand to procure fabric for nearly every design project in her career, she reached out to Rose Brand’s custom sewing department to see what was possible.

 

“I’ve worked with Rose Brand my entire career. Every project involves some kind of fabric from Rose Brand, but I’ve never worked with them in this artistically collaborative way.”

- Mimi Lien

 

Rose Brand’s fabrication experts recommended red Boost IFR stretch fabric, which had similar qualities to the red durag from the scale model. At 122” wide, Boost was the perfect candidate to envelop the entire stage while maintaining complex curved geometry at scale with as few seams as possible. Its inherent flame resistance made it an ideal fabric for the internationally-touring show to ensure safety compliance across borders.

 

Rose Brand’s Jordan LaMagna-Meneghetti triangulated the curvature in CAD software, and worked closely with Patty Jaeger, Luz Gonzales to sew the first pass. The team rigged the full scale model to truss at Powerhouse Studios in Brooklyn, where they held a ‘dress fitting’. Daniel Huston, Tom Sullivan, Jordan, and Mimi shaped the openings in-situ before completing the immense custom sewing job at Rose Brand’s headquarters in Secaucus.

 

 

The finished piece is an impressive testament to contemporary experimental design and the evocative nature of textiles in theatrical scenery. Mimi reflected that “the ethos of TRIBE is an Afrofuturist aesthetic, and I feel most happy that this organic space that feels slightly alien, feels both ancestral and futuristic.” See the full performance at Curve Theatre in London May 8-9, 2026, or at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston May 15-16, 2026.

 

 

“This is not an exaggeration, literally this piece would not exist without the collaboration with Rose Brand.”

- Mimi Lien