Design, Technology, and Management Faculty
Associate Professor, Chair of Scene Design Program
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

MFA – Scene & Costume Design, Carnegie Mellon University
BFA – Scene Design, the Central Academy of Drama (Beijing)

Specialties: Scene Design and Costume Design

Wenhai Ma joined the Department of Theatre at UIUC Fall, 2008. Prior this post, he had taught at the Central Academy of Drama (Beijing), Duke University, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Purdue University and University of Nebraska Lincoln, respectively. He has designed over 100 productions in the US and Asia. His designs include sets for Moonlight and Valentino (Pre-Broadway), Macbeth, Arsenic and Old Lace (Duke Stage Company), Widows (Hip Pocket Theatre, TX), The Magic Flute (Durham Arts Council & Triangle Music Theatre, NC), Jazz: the Nutcracker Suite (NC Jazz Per. Theatre), The Nightingale (Chapel Hill Ballet, NC), How I learned Driving (Man Bites Dog Theatre, NC), The Greeks (Carnegie Mellon), Full Moon, set and costumes (Duke University), Desire under the Elms set and costumes (Shenyang Drama Rep, China), Family (Hong Kong), Turandot (Opera Hong Kong), Falling in Love with Her and No.1 Restaurant in China (Spring-Time Stage, HK), A Mid-summer Night’s Dream (Chung Ying Theater Company & Hong Kong Syphonetia, HK), An Absolute Turkey (Hong Kong Rep), Forever Teresa Teng and When Will you Come Again (TNT Teresa Teng Cultural & Entertainment Co., HK & Taiwan). His most recent designs include Broadcast (ULN), College widow (Purdue University), the Peach Blossom Valley, set and costumes (Changde Han Opera Rep, China), Lost in Balcony Fog (Hunan Kunju Opera Troupe, China), Crazy Snow a musical (Shanghai Drama Center) He has been invited as guest lecturer to conduct workshops and seminars by universities and institutions such as the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, Fudan University School of Visual and Performing Arts (Shanghai), Guangdong Industrial University School of Visual Art, Xianjiang Art Institute and Hunan Art Institute (China). He has also illustrated picture books for publisher such as Morrow Junior, Viking, Pan Asian Publications (USA) and Candlewick.

Email: wenhaima@illinois.edu