When David Cronenberg accepts his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, the occasion will be marked by a screening of one of his 21 films. Cronenberg’s selection? “M. Butterfly,” his 1993 adaptation of David Henry Hwang’s Tony-winning play, about the decades-spanning love affair between a cross-dressing Chinese opera singer and the French diplomat unaware of his lover’s gender identity.
Roundabout Theatre Announces 2018 New Play Reading Series Lineup /
NEW YORK CITY: Roundabout Theatre Company and Columbia University School of the Arts have announced the winners of Columbia@Roundabout’s 2018 New Play Reading Series. The initiative, supported by the Tow Foundation, awards three playwrights in Columbia’s current MFA program and recent alumni with cash prizes and a reading at Roundabout’s Rehearsal Hall (Sept. 24-27). In addition, David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, and Charles L. Mee will provide mentorship to the writers.
Roundabout to Present 3 New Plays by Columbia’s MFA Playwrights /
Andy Boyd (Os Confederados), Kristin Slaney (Hockey Messiah), and Jay Stull (Undone), three playwrights from Columbia University School of the Arts' MFA program, will see their plays presented in Roundabout Theatre Company's Rehearsal Hall in September. The new play reading series will be held September 24–27.
The selection committee consisted of two representatives from Roundabout Theatre Company: Director of New Play Development Jill Rafson and Artistic Consultant Robyn Goodman; and two representatives from Columbia University: Christian Parker, Chair of the Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts, and David Henry Hwang, head of the Playwriting concentration for the program.
Henry David Hwang’s ‘Yellow Face’ raises still-relevant questions 11 years after its LA debut /
When Rachel Dolezal was forced to step down from the presidency of the local branch of the NAACP in Spokane, Wash., in 2015 because she was not (as she had claimed) African-American, it spurred a debate on the nature of race and cultural appropriation which was long past due.
Yet, playwright Henry David Hwang had already addressed the issue, and with a minority population which if anything is even more likely to face casual appropriation, in “Yellow Face,” which had its premiere in Los Angeles in 2007.
Six Decades ago, 'Flower Drum Song' featured Hollywood's first Asian-American cast /
“It was probably the portrayal of Chinese Americans that more Americans saw than anything else.”
A glamorous Hollywood film with a nearly all-Asian cast makes a splashy debut, telling the story of young Asians living in America who must overcome the meddling of family to be with their true loves. That describes the new Hollywood blockbuster “Crazy Rich Asians,” scheduled for release on Aug. 15, but nearly six decades ago it was also “Flower Drum Song.”
Venice Festival Adds David Cronenberg Master Class; will also host a screening of 'M. Butterfly,' /
The director, set to receive a lifetime achievement honor at the fest, will also host a screening of 'M. Butterfly,' which he considers one of his most personal films. Director David Cronenberg, who will be the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival, will also give a master class at the event, organizers said Thursday.
Palo Alto Players to Stage TARZAN This September /
Palo Alto Players swings into its 2018-19 season with TARZAN, the action-packed musical adventure based on the Disney animated film and classic novel, Tarzan of the Apes. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterly, Chinglish) and featuring a score from Grammy Award-winner Phil Collins, TARZAN is the moving story of the human child, who grows up among the gorillas in the West African rainforest. TARZAN is directed by Palo Alto Players' Artistic Director Patrick Klein with choreography by Claire Alexander, and features a cast of 20 local Bay Area actors.
Howard Sherman: US theatre is increasingly flipping the straight white perspective. /
The US will cease to be a majority-white populated country between 2040 and 2045 according to several reports on census population projection. But some recent plays may already be giving white audiences the feeling of what it’s like to be a minority, and receiving a lot of attention for their efforts.
At the Helen Hayes Theater, Straight White Men, written not-so-incidentally by Young Jean Lee, the first Asian-American woman ever to have a play on Broadway, is presented entirely within a picture frame. A gold inset at the bottom of it bears the title of the play.
Read more at The Stage
IN PHOTOS: Behind-the-scenes of RS Francisco, cast members' rehearsal for M. Butterfly. /
After 28 years, Tony-award winning play M. Butterfly will take flight once again in Manila. Frontrow Entertainment led by award-winning actor/entrepreneur Raymond "RS" Francisco and Broadway producer/four-time Tony award-winner Jhett Tolentino are producing the local re-staging of American-Chinese playwright David Henry Hwang's master piece. M. Butterfly will be staged from September 13 to September 30 at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in Bonifacio Global City.
Silk Road Rising’s New China Festival introduces American audiences to Chinese playwrights /
Silk Road Rising, under the direction of Jamil Khoury and Malik Gillani, has been a Chicago institution for amplifying Asian-American and Middle Eastern-American artistic voices since 2002. In keeping with the company's stated core values of discovery, pluralism, and empathy, the New China Festival, led by director Helen Young, will present a trio of staged readings of plays by authors from the Chinese-speaking world from August 4 through 19.
Acclaimed playwright David Henry Hwang led a curation panel for the three selections, which vary significantly in style and theme. They are Dialogue & Rebuttal by Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian; Speaking as Then by Ruoxin Ji, a young playwright originally from Nanjing now studying at Columbia University; and Sand on a Distant Star by Stan Lai.
BWW Interview: Acclaimed Film-Stage Director Kanakan-Balintagos Talks M. BUTTERFLY; Show Premieres 9/13 /
Manila, Philippines--A prolific dramatist, Tennessee Williams proved most succinct in declaring an ironic dictum: A play does not exist until it's on the stage. We'll assume he didn't mean any run-of-the-mill production. He must have implied the ideal scenario, where the playwright's brainchild winds up in a first-rate triumph that executes his vision--down to its finest detail. It's an undertaking that requires a dynamic production team to achieve. Ultimately, the onus is on the skilled director to render his magic and transport the proverbial page to the stage.
Disney's TARZAN at the Lucie Stern Theater On Sale Now /
Washed up on the shores of West Africa, an infant boy is taken in and raised by gorillas who name him Tarzan. Apart from striving for acceptance from his ape father, Tarzan's life is mostly monkey business until a human expedition treks into his tribe's territory and he encounters creatures like himself for the first time.
Experience This Beloved Animated Film LIVE On Stage! Disney's TARZAN swings into the Lucie Stern September 7.
Photo Coverage: First Look at TARZAN in the Berkshires /
Berkshire Theatre Group, celebrating its celebrating its 90th milestone season, presents the musical Tarzan with book by David Henry Hwang, and music & lyrics by Phil Collins, based on the story "Tarzan of the Apes" by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Disney film, Tarzan. Directed by Travis Daly and with music direction by Mark Gionfriddo and choreography byAvital Asuleen, performances begin TONIGHT, July 26, 2018 for a limited engagement through August 16, 2018 at The Colonial Theatre (BTG Pittsfield Campus, 111 South Street, Pittsfield, MA).
The Atlanta Lyric Theatre Presents AIDA /
Atlanta Lyric Theatre presents this timeless musical love story August 17-September 2, 2018. Winner of 4 Tony Awards in 2000, AIDA is an epic tale of love, loyalty and betrayal set against the back top of ancient Egypt. AIDA features music alive with passion by the great Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice as well as a book by Tony Award-winning playwright, David Henry Hwang, Linda Woolverton and Robert Falls. AIDA, performs at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre
Love and lies /
HOW CAN a man fall in love with someone without ever realizing — even after 20 years — that his lover is not a woman?
That is the conundrum posed by David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly, which is loosely based on the odd yet true story of a French diplomat, Bernard Boursicot, who fell in love with Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer who performed female roles — and who just happened to be a Chinese spy. How could he not know that his long-time lover was a man? How did the Chinese actor get away with it?
David Henry Hwang on What's Next for SOFT POWER and Why He's So 'Proud' of His Actors & Audiences /
David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's ''Soft Power,'' a new musical satire that takes a hard look at America and China, hopes to go out with a bang this Fourth of July weekend.
Jeanine Tesori and David Henry Hwang Explain the Game-Changing Form of Their Soft Power /
Tony Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist David Henry Hwang always knew that his latest work, Soft Power, was going to be a play with a musical. Not to be confused with a play or a musical, or a play with music (in which songs simply accompany plot—different from a musical in which songs drive plot). Directed by Leigh Silverman, Soft Power, currently playing San Francisco’s Curran through July 8, is a genre-breaking new form of theatre.
8 New Theatre Books You Need to Read This Summer /
American Theatre Wing, an Oral History: 100 Years, 100 Voices, 100 Million Miracles, by Patrick Pacheco
The American Theatre Wing may be best known to theatre fans as the co-producer of the Tony Awards, but in its more-than-a-century’s existence, the Wing has been an invaluable support to the art of theatre in ways that go well beyond an awards ceremony. Loaded with first person anecdotes and never-before-seen-photos, this book takes you from the Wing’s beginnings as a World War I charitable organization, to the establishment of the famed Stage Door Canteen during World War II, to the Wing of today that works tirelessly to support theatre on Broadway and all across the United States. This oral history is shared by such theatrical luminaries as Angela Lansbury, Rosie O’Donnell, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Harold Prince, Kenny Leon, Neil Patrick Harris, David Henry Hwang, Harvey Fierstein, and James Corden.
BWW Exclusive: Conrad Ricamora Rises to SOFT POWER and Blasts Trump for Getting Away With Racism /
Conrad Ricamora is best-known to millions of TV viewers as Oliver, the cute computer whiz, on ABC's "How to Get Away With Murder." But this 2013 Theatre World Award winner also can slay an audience onstage as he has proven Off-Broadway in "Here Lies Love" and on Broadway in "The King and I." And Ricamora is currently "killing it" as the star of "Soft Power," David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's bold, new musical. Directed by Leigh Silverman, it is playing through July 8 at the Curran in San Francisco.
Soft Power‘s Alyse Alan Louis on Playing Hillary Clinton (Sorta) /
David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's "play with a musical" — at the Curran through July 8 — turns tropes about Chinese-American relations on their head.
It’s a truism in international relations that China will overtake the United States as the world’s pre-eminent military and economic power at some point in the middle third of this century (if not sooner). But in the loose division between geopolitcal forms of dominance — in a weirdly gendered schema that equates — it remains to be seen whether China can excel at exporting pop culture the way America has since 1945.