BWW Review: AIDA at The Singapore Airlines Theatre, An eye-opening performance from the upcoming local gems. / April 30, 2019 by David Hwang

"Leave! Go back, it is not safe here!" shouts came from the sides of the foyer as we were collecting our tickets at the box office. " We want our Egypt back!" there were protesters holding posters and signs. Suddenly one hurriedly came up to me and my friend, and thrust in our hands a flyer and told us to join him in the revolution, the flyer reads - 25 Jan 2011, Tahrir Square

We found ourselves in the conflict zone of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, where protesters on stage were shouting "Down with Mubarak!" as we entered The Singapore Airlines Theatre of LASALLE College of the Arts. We settled down to watch the latest production of Aida, as part of The Lasalle Show, an annual graduation showcase.

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Columbia University School Of The Arts Presents New Plays Festival 2019 / April 14, 2019 by David Hwang

Columbia University School of the Arts presents seven new plays written by the Columbia MFA Playwriting Students of 2019. The esteemed faculty who have nurtured these students, including Tony©, Pulitzer, and Obie Award winners such as Charles Mee, Lynn Nottage, and David Henry Hwang invite you to experience these innovative new playwrights.

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Palo Alto Players Presents FLOWER DRUM SONG / April 8, 2019 by David Hwang

Palo Alto Players continues its 2018-19 season with FLOWER DRUM SONG, Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang's new adaptation of the 1958 Rodgers and Hammerstein classic musical. Based on the 1957 novel "The Flower Drum Song" by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee, FLOWER DRUM SONG, set in San Francisco's Chinatown, features a completely new book by Hwang

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"The Dance and the Railroad" at Salt Lake Acting Company / April 8, 2019 by David Hwang

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Paisley Rekdal is Utah Poet Laureate and a professor of English at the University of Utah. On May 6 and 7, she'll be giving a reading of "West: A Poem of the Transcontinental Railroad," commissioned for the 150th anniversary of the railroad. That's at Salt Lake Acting Company in conjunction with David Henry Hwang's "The Dance and the Railroad". Tickets and more information are available at saltlakeactingcompany.org

CAJSHS Drama Club to Present Disney’s Tarzan / April 8, 2019 by David Hwang

Taken in and raised by a tribe of gorillas, the young boy strives for acceptance by his ape father while grappling with his uniqueness.

When a human expedition enters their territory, Tarzan – now a man – encounters strangers like himself for the first time.

With heart-pumping music by rock legend Phil Collins, a book by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, Tarzan is a show for the entire family to enjoy.

Disney’s Live-Action Movies Release Schedule For 2019 And Beyond / April 3, 2019 by David Hwang

Alan Menken; Stephen Schwartz; David Henry Hwang; Josh Gad

It was announced in January by Deadline that Disney was planning for a live-action, musical version of the animated film. The outlet reported David Henry Hwang was brought on to write the script and that composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz were writing music for the project. Actor Josh Gad is producing and rumors suggest he “might play the lead character.”

Travel to 1950s Tibet in CTM's latest / March 3, 2019 by David Hwang

CHILDREN’S THEATER OF MADISON | “TIBET THROUGH THE RED BOX”

When the Seattle Children’s Theatre commissioned playwright David Henry Hwang (“M Butterfly,” “Golden Child,” “Flower Drum Song”) to adapt “Tibet Through the Red Box” for the stage, the playwright wove in “Tibetan stories, a little bit of history, culture, Buddhism, the Dalai Lama – it’s all sort of sprinkled in there,” Sheridan said.

Peter Sis’ father landed unintentionally in Tibet in the 1950s, and that is fact.

But the stories he brought home from that faraway land seem almost too fanciful to be true: How he survived an avalanche, for example, or got lost in a Tibetan forest of rhododendrons. How a boy wearing jingle bells came to his rescue or how, after he lost consciousness in a snowstorm, he was nursed back to health by giant fairy beings.

Divided Loyalty: Being Chinese in America / March 3, 2019 by David Hwang

What is it like to be Chinese in America these days?

As anti-China rhetoric rises, Chinese in this country – from long-time U.S. citizens to newly arrived students – are placed on the defensive, often having to publicly declare their political loyalties. At the same time, the Chinese government – playing on ethnic loyalty – pulls on their heartstrings, with messaging aimed at gaining support for China’s policies.

Wednesday, March 13, 6:00–7:30 PM
Speakers: David Henry Hwang, Huang Ruo, Xin Wang, Nancy Yao Maasbach
Location: 40 Rector Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10006

David Henry Hwang on Theatre, Trump, and Asian-American Identity / February 27, 2019 by David Hwang

American writers don’t get much bigger than David Henry Hwang. The award-winning playwright’s best-known works, which include “FOB,” “M. Butterfly,” “Yellow Face,” and “Chinglish,” are some of the most acclaimed works in the modern theatrical canon. Indeed, Hwang’s influence on the American dramatic arts has been so profound that a society was established in 2016 for the scholarly examination of his works.

Palo Alto Players Announces 4th Annual Gala EAST MEETS WEST / February 27, 2019 by David Hwang

Palo Alto Players, the first theatre company on the Peninsula, will hold its fourth annual gala fundraiser on Sunday, March 17, 2019 at the University Club of Palo Alto, 3277 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto. The evening, entitled EAST MEETS WEST, is inspired by the company's upcoming production of FLOWER DRUM SONG and will include selected songs from the David Henry Hwang revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, a guest performance by the Grant Avenue Follies dancers, exciting silent and live auctions, and the second annual Dessert Dash.

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Opening Ceremony Designers Honor Asian Pioneers In Fashion Week Lookbook / February 18, 2019 by David Hwang

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“The message we are saying is that community is everything, love yourself, and assimilation is passé.” — Humberto Leon

These designers are paying homage to inspiring Asians and Asian-Americans while making a fashion statement along the way.

Fashion brand Opening Ceremony, helmed by creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, released their look book, coinciding with February’s New York Fashion Week.

While the pieces in the catalogue are vibrantly stunning on their own, they’re even more striking because of those modeling them ― a cast of Asian and Asian-American pioneers, including the likes of renowned playwright David Henry Hwang, designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia, and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before author Jenny Han.

CBBC sitcom about British Chinese family accused of racism / February 18, 2019 by David Hwang

More than 100 Beats members have signed an open letter to the BBC and the production company Twenty Twenty to complain that the enlisting of a Chinese writer as a cultural consultant had been insufficient. “We do not accept the use of cultural consultants as replacements for British East Asian writers in a show where the raison d’etre pivots on the lives of a British Chinese family,” the letter says.

Signatories to the letter include the actors David Yip and Jessica Henwick and the American playwright David Henry Hwang.

I’m Asian-American. Affirmative Action Worked for Me. / February 14, 2019 by David Hwang

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I am a first-generation Korean-American and I’m frustrated by the lawsuit against Harvard, in which the judge will hear closing arguments on Wednesday. The plaintiffs claim that the college should end its very modest consideration of race in admissions. They wrongly assume that Asian-Americans cannot benefit from affirmative action.

David Henry Hwang in Opening Ceremony's Fall 2019 Asian Identity Themed Fashion Spread / February 13, 2019 by David Hwang

Opening Ceremony has been doing some soul searching. Last season was a celebration of queerness and the LGBTQIA community drawn in part from cofounder Humberto Leon’s own journey. This season, Leon and Carol Lim are exploring the Asian identity. Their lookbook stars a diaspora of Asian icons: composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, designer Anna Sui, actress Greta Lee, writer Jenny Han, chef Angela Dimayuga, playwright David Henry Hwang, artist Chella Man, man-about-town Waris Ahluwalia, and more.

Photo Flash: SOFT POWER Meets THE KING AND I With David Henry Hwang And Bartlett Sher At Asia Society / February 12, 2019 by David Hwang

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Award-winning theatre artists David Henry Hwang and Bartlett Sher engaged in a conversation about the current state of American musical theatre, through the lens of Asian and Asian American representation on Broadway at the Asia Society in New York on February 5th.

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Soft Power Leads Los Angeles’ 2019 Ovation Awards / January 30, 2019 by David Hwang

The new musical from David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori played Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson last year.

The LA Stage Alliance presented the 29th annual Ovation Awards, honoring the best in Los Angeles theatre, January 28 at the Theatre at Ace Hotel. One of the big winners was the new musical Soft Power, which led the pack with six wins

Gemma Chen lives by David Henry Hwang's views on representation / January 30, 2019 by David Hwang

“The response to the film has been above and beyond what we could have imagined and it means the world when people express how much the film means to them,” Gemma Chen confessed.

She continued, “The writer David Henry Hwang said something poignant about representation: when it’s been absent most of your life, sometimes you have to see it to realize just how much you needed it. For me personally, it feels like the door is finally open to telling the stories of people who traditionally have been ignored or underrepresented or forgotten by history. We aren’t going back.”

Jeanine Tesori & David Henry Hwang's World Premiere Soft Power Wins Big at L.A. Ovation Awards / January 30, 2019 by David Hwang

The celebrated world premiere production of Soft Power, a new musical by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home) and David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), was honored with six L.A. Ovation Awards on January 28. The musical debuted at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre in the spring of 2018.

M. butterfly in Cyprus theatres / January 29, 2019 by David Hwang

M.Butterfly, a production by Anemona Theatre presenting David Henry Hwang’s Tony-award-winning play will continue to be staged in Nicosia until the end of February.

The play’s story, while entwined with that of the Italian opera Madama Butterfly, is based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Peking opera singer.

Having premiered in Broadway in 1988, M.Butterfly continued to run for two years with a total of 777 shows, before being turned into a feature film in 1993.

M Butterfly at ArtsWest makes Seattle Picks List / January 29, 2019 by David Hwang

Well, if you’re very sexually inexperienced… and you sleep together very rarely… and you keep the lights off… and your “wife” keeps her business well-tucked… and you reeeeeeally want it to be true… it is conceivable (so to speak) that you could be someone’s lover for 20 years and never realize “she” is actually a man—oui, avec une verge. It actually happened to a French diplomat who fell for a female-presenting Beijing opera singer—and the story’s even more complex than that: The singer was a spy who wangled (sorry) intel from him.