JUN MAEDA

MAEDA--Jun, the Obie Award-winning designer and resident set designer at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) since 1970, died at age 79 on Monday, April 6, three days after his 79th birthday, at Mt. Sinai West Hospital in Manhattan. Mr. Maeda, whose career spanned 50 years, during which time he worked with a wide range of directors from Andrei Serban to Harvey Fierstein and Peter Brook, succumbed to the Novel Coronavirus, according to Mia Yoo, La MaMa's artistic director. Born in Miyagi, Japan in 1941 and a graduate of Nihon University with a degree in agriculture and land development, Mr. Maeda arrived in New York in 1970 as part of an international touring company of the Tokyo Kid Brothers, and Shuji Terayama, leading Japanese experimental theater companies. He was a cherished member of La MaMa's celebrated Great Jones Repertory and his designs were seen again in the company's December 2019 revival of "The Trojan Women." He received the Village Voice Obie Award for Outstanding Work in the Theater in 1981. His designs also earned him a Maharam Award for Theater Design, and a Villager Award. Renowned world theatre director Andrei Serban said of Jun Maeda, "Maeda was one-of-a-kind. No one was more gifted. He did for us what he had to do with all his heart and all his might, with attention, presence and love. And exquisite taste." Jun Maeda is survived by his sisters, Aiko Hishinuma and Tomoko Takashima, and his niece, Rie Kobayashi.