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Arnold Aronson is Professor of Theatre in the MFA Theatre Program at the  Columbia University School of the Arts in New York City where he has taught since 1991. He served as Chair of the program from 1991-98 and 2008-2012. He also co-created and teaches in the Theatre PhD Program. Prior to Columbia he taught at the University of Virginia, Cornell University, University of Michigan, and the City University of New York. He has a BA from Rutgers University and MA/PhD from New York University.

 

He writes primarily about scenography and about avant-garde theatre and is the author of Ming Cho Lee: A Life in Design, The History and Theory of Environmental Scenography; American Set Design; American Avant-Garde Theatre: A History; Architect of Dreams: The Theatrical Vision of Joseph Urban; Looking into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography; Exhibition on the Stage: Reflections on the 2007 Prague Quadrennial(ed.), and The Disappearing Stage: Reflections on the 2011 Prague Quadrennial (ed.). He is Co-Editor of Theater and Performance Design Journal (Routledge). Professor Aronson has also contributed essays to The Cambridge Companion to Chekhov; Approaching the Millennium: Essays on Tony Kushner's Angels in America; Arthur Miller's America: Theater & Culture in a Time of Change; Pleasure: The Architecture and Design of Rockwell Group; Against Theatre: Creative Destructions on the Modernist Stage; and Performance Design. He has also contributed to The Cambridge History of American Theatre, Vol. 3; The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre; and The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre. His articles have appeared in The Drama Review, American Theatre, Theatre Forum, Bühnentechnische Rundschau, Theatre Design & Technology, and The New York Times, among others.

 

Professor Aronson has been the recipient of fellowships from The Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, Italy, and The Bogliasco Foundation, Italy, and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Estonia, Korea, and Italy. From 1978-88 he served as Editor of Theatre Design & Technology. He also served for many years as the chair of the History and Theory Commission of the International Organization of Scenographers, Theatre Architects, and Technicians (OISTAT). He has a long association with the Prague Quadrennial of Stage Design and Theatre Architecture having served as President of the International Jury in 1991 and 1999, curator of the U.S. exhibit in 1995, and General Commissioner in 2007.

 

 

 

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