Nearly three decades since his Tony Award-winning play "M. Butterfly" was staged in Manila, David Henry Hwang was finally able to see a performance that has come to be known as "legendary."
"I usually don't see productions of 'M. Butterfly' outside New York, but I had to come to this one," Hwang told members of the media during a press lunch on Friday, September 28, at Seda BGC.
BASED on Disney’s epic animated musical adventure and Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan the Musical features heart-pumping music by rock legend Phil Collins and a book by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang.
Presented by Jhett Tolentino and Frontrow Entertainment, the David Henry Hwang Master Class will focus on playwrighting.
Tony and Grammy Award winner Jhett Tolentino will host the one-hour event to be attended by theater/drama students from select schools and universities; and noted personalities in Philippine theater industry.
MANILA, Philippines — Before actress Ellen Adarna disappeared from the limelight in 2017 to run away with lover John Lloyd Cruz, among her last public appearances was during her launch as an endorser of a cosmetics brand.
In an interview with Philstar.com, RS Francisco of Front Row Entertainment, which signed up Adarna to become an endorser of Front Row’s makeup, tells in the video what he knows about the actress’ whereabouts after she was last seen in his event.
MUCH has already been written about M Butterfly, the David Henry Hwang masterpiece that hits the Maybank Performing Arts Theater stage throughout the month. On the fantastic sets, to the dazzling performances of the actors, especially its lead RS Francisco, and how powerful and relevant the material is no matter that the play was written more than 30 years ago.
Not to trivialize what’s been gushed about but one thing I would like to highlight about this current Manila staging is that 100 percent of the earnings will go to charity. Each night, a different beneficiary will be helped.
Eight longtime contributors to the New York theater scene have been named 2018 inductees into the Theater Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater. The talented creatives will be honored at The 48th Annual Theater Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre on November 12. The event will be hosted by past Theater Hall of Fame inductee and five-time Tony-nominated actress Dana Ivey.
2018 Theater Hall of Fame inductees include playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), director/actor Joe Mantello (Wicked), actress Cicely Tyson (The Trip to Bountiful), actress Christine Baranski (Boeing-Boeing), actor Rene Auberjonois (City of Angels), playwright Maria Irene Fornes (And What of the Night?) and playwright Adrienne Kennedy (Ohio State Murders), with a posthumous induction to Signature Theatre founder James Houghton.
María Irene Fornés and Joe Mantello will also be among those honored at the Gershwin Theatre.
The Theater Hall of Fame Inc. has announced its 2018 inductees: actors Rene Auberjonais, Christine Baranski, and Cicely Tyson; playwrights María Irene Fornés, David Henry Hwang, and Adrienne Kennedy; director Joe Mantello; and, posthumously, producer James Houghton.
The 48th Annual Theater Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater Induction Ceremony will be held November 12 at the Gershwin Theatre.
FEATURING MARVELOUS costume pieces by Eric Pineda, Chrysalis is a convergence of seven prominent names in photography: Jun de Leon, Raymund Isaac, Manny Librodo, Mandy Navasero, BJ Pascual, Wig Tysmans, and Patrick Uy. The exhibition—mounted in conjunction with the restaging of David Henry Hwang’s Tony Award-winning play, M. Butterfly—showcases interpretations of the perfect woman as embodied by Song Liling, the Chinese opera singer central to the love story. Chrysalis is a symbolic title, reflecting how the re-staging of Mr. Hwang’s tale has grown and transitioned since it was first staged in the Philippines in 1990.
Manila, Philippines--Presented by acclaimed Broadway producer Jhett Tolentino and Frontrow Entertainment, M. BUTTERFLY (1988), the Tony Award-winning play written by David Henry Hwang, is all set to open tonight, September 13, at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater, BGC Arts Center, Bonifacio Global City. Multi-award winning stage and film director Kanakan-Balintagos directs this highly anticipated production.
The Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre is officially kicking off its 25th edition on Monday at the main hall of the Cairo Opera House as the opening ceremony starts at eight before showing the Swiss photographic play You and I.
The festival, which ends 21 September, will honor two Egyptian theatre icons, famous actor Ezzat El-Alaily and puppeteer Nagy Shaker, who died last month at the age of 86, in addition to a few other international theatre icons including American playwright David Henry Hwang and German Theatre scholar Hans-Thies Lehmann.
Did you know that David Henry Hwang, author of the play M. Butterfly, has deep Philippine connection?
David actually talked about it in an exclusive interview with The STAR arranged by David’s aunt Doreen Yu (this paper’s Associate Editor and editor of the Sunday magazine Starweek) in 2008 when David came to grace the gala premiere of his other play, Golden Child, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) as opening of the Tanghalang Pilipino’s 22nd theater season.
The good news is that David is coming to watch M. Butterfly, according to R.S. Francisco who is reprising his role as Song Liling (with French actor Olivier Borten as leading man) 28 years after it was staged here in 1990, and whose Frontrow Entertainment is co-producing the restaging with Tony/Grammy award-winner Jhett Tolentino at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in Bonifacio Global City from Sept. 12 to 30.
M. Butterfly makes its much-awaited debut on the Philippine stage on September 13 at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater in Bonifacio Global City. Below, we list down five reasons why you shouldn't miss it!
It's an award-winning play.
M. Butterfly, written by David Henry Hwang, opened on Broadway in 1988. It went on to win the Best Play, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play (BD Wong), and Best Direction of a Play (John Dexter) titles during the Tony Awards; Outstanding New Play at the Drama Desk Award; and Outstanding New Broadway Play at the Outer Critics Circle Award all in the same year. The piece was also shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989. M. Butterfly officially closed after 777 shows in 1990.
Last season, “Hamilton” was the 800-pound gorilla in Orange County’s theater line-up. This year, that larger-than-life primate would be “Dear Evan Hansen,” a musical about a high school student with severe social anxiety. Like “Hamilton,” it sounds unpromising on paper, but it took Broadway by storm last year, winning six Tony Awards, including best musical and best score, and it’s hugely popular with – you guessed it – high school students. “Dear Evan Hansen” moves into Segerstrom Center for the Arts on Jan. 1 and stays for 13 days.
The celebration kicks off at 6 p.m. at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge with a VIP cocktail party with the honorees and celebrity guests. Among the guests will be Tony Award-winning playwright, screenwriter and TV writer David Henry Hwang, whose works include “M. Butterfly,” Showtime’s “The Affair,” and the Broadway musical “Aida.” Thanks to the expertise and quick thinking of The Brooklyn Hospital Center’s Emergency Department team, Hwang survived and fully recovered from a random attack outside his Brooklyn home in 2015.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
