Called the "dean" of American scene design, Ming Cho Lee (born 1930) shaped the face and future of design in professional theater and opera in America beginning in the late 1960s through his work on Broadway, the New York Shakespeare Festival, and the Metropolitan Opera and by teaching design at the Yale School of Drama.

Ming Cho Lee was born on October 3, 1930, in Shanghai, China. Lee's father was a 1919 Yale graduate who was in the international insurance business. When his parents divorced when he was six, Lee was sent to live with his father, which was not unusual at the time. "I had weekend visits with my mother, and those were the great moments of my life," he recalls. His mother, on his weekend visits with her, would take him to the theater, movies, and Chinese opera. His mother also provided him with the opportunity to study ink drawing...