David Henry Hwang’s ‘M. Butterfly’ Followup: ‘M. Turkey’

The goal: a comedy about mistaken racial identity inspired by protests over “Miss Saigon.” The result: a backstage farce that never got to opening night.

David Henry Hwang’s “Face Value” arrived on Broadway on March 9, 1993. It left five days later. For Gina Torres, an actress in that production, the news came as a relief. “Because we were pushing that stone uphill for a good long time,” she said.

“Face Value,” Hwang’s follow-up to the Tony Award-winning “M. Butterfly,” was a farce — and not entirely in the ways that Hwang and Jerry Zaks, the play’s director, intended.

In 1990, Hwang, the first Asian-American to win a playwriting Tony, joined members of Actor’s Equity in objecting to the casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian character in the Broadway production of “Miss Saigon.” Equity rejected the casting.

Read more at New York Times

Ode to a Butterfly: On the Transformative Symbol, Its Failure in ‘Antebellum,’ and Its Power in ‘Possessor Uncut’

Thou winged blossom! liberated thing!
What secret tie binds thee to other flowers
Still held within the garden’s fostering?
Will they too soar with the completed hours,
Take flight and be like thee
Irrevocably free,
Hovering at will o’er their parental bowers?
—“Ode to a Butterfly,” Thomas Wentworth Higginson

The butterfly has long served as a shorthand way of communicating change and growth. The transformative nature of how a caterpillar emerges from a cocoon as a physically different being, now with antennae and wings and totally different colors, has become a symbol in a variety of genres. Think of the play M. Butterfly, and how author David Henry Hwang raises questions about gender performance and sexual desire. 

Read more at Pajiba

David Henry Hwang, Judith Light, David Hyde Pierce, José Rivera added to "In Our America" Concert; Broadway for Biden team

Tony winners Judith Light, David Hyde Pierce, Leslie Uggams, LaChanze, Karen Ziemba, and more Broadway stars have joined Broadway for Biden’s In Our America: A Concert for the Soul of Our Nation lineup. David Henry Hwang, José Rivera, Kate Rigg, Jacob Burns, and Maggie Cassella have joined the writing team.

Also newly added to the lineup are Terence Archie, Tala Ashe, Jeannette Bayardelle, Alex Boniello, Layla Capers, Nikki Renée Daniels, Quentin Earl Darrington, Sheila Kay Davis, Rogelio Douglas Jr., Matt Doyle, Michael Emerson, Celia Rose Gooding, Jin Ha, James Harkness, Ben Harney, William Jackson Harper, Aisha Jackson, Jawan M. Jackson, Marcus Paul James, Isaiah Johnson, Justin Keyes, Hailey Kilgore, Quentin Oliver Lee, John Leguizamo, Telly Leung, Selenis Leyva, Sky Lakota Lynch, Taylor Mac, Sahr Ngaujah, Okieriete Onaodowan, Larry Owens, Fiona Morgan Quinn, Jelani Remy, Conrad Ricamora, Lauren Ridloff, Nicolette Robinson, Dee Roscioli, Walter Russell III, George Salazar, Elizabeth Judd Salinas, Rashidra Scott, Ryan Shaw, Jimmy Smits, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Jayden Theopile, Nasia Thomas, Skye Dakota Turner, Marquise Vilson, Marlon Wayans, Donald Webber Jr., Rebecca Covington Webber, and the casts of Kiss My Aztec and Missing Peace.

Read more at Playbill

#ENOUGH Announces Seven Winning Plays Chosen by Lauren Gunderson, David Henry Hwang and More

#ENOUGH has announced the selection of seven plays by teen playwrights chosen by nationally recognized dramatists Lauren Gunderson, Academy Award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan, Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, and Karen Zacarías, as the winners of #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence, a national short play competition for middle and high school students. On December 14, 2020 -- the eight-year remembrance of the shootings at Sandy Hook -- the winning titles will receive their digital premiere on the streaming platform Broadway on Demand and be made available for free for organizations to stage readings locally.

Read more at Broadway World

AAPI Celebration with Senator Kamala Harris

Please join 
Senator Kamala Harris

Maya Harris | Andrew Yang 

and special guests

Margaret Cho | Connie Chung | Darren Criss 

David Henry Hwang | Padma Lakshmi | Lucy Liu | Aasaf Mandvi 

Kumail Nanjiani | Ravi Patel | Lou Diamond Phillips 

 Maggie Q | Lea Salonga | George Takei and more

for
 A Celebration 

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Learn more at Joe Biden.com

Breaking: Tony Nominations Coming Next Week; Sets Digital Ceremony for Early December

Tony Award Productions will announce the nominations for American Theatre Wing's 74th Annual Awards® on Thursday, October 15th. The Awards Nominating Committee will meet to vote on this year's nominations on Tuesday, October 13th. The nominations announcement will be hosted by Award-winning actor James Monroe Iglehart on the official Tony Awards YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/tonyawards at 12:00 noon ET.

The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. At The Broadway League, Thomas Schumacher is Chairman and Charlotte St. Martin is President. At the American Theatre Wing, David Henry Hwang is Chair and Heather A. Hitchens is President & CEO.

Read more at Broadway World

Re-Imagined Public Theater Virtual Gala

"We must strive to build institutions worthy of the beauty of our artists," says Kenny Leon, who directs the event.

A re-imagined virtual gala from The Public Theater will be a star-studded affair as the institution looks to the future following the year’s reckoning around racism in the country. FORWARD. TOGETHER., directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon, will take place October 20 at 8 PM ET. 

The event will be live streamed on The Public’s website, YouTube, and Facebook. While free to watch, donations are encouraged to support the Off-Broadway institution. 

Kenny Leon Marc J. Franklin

The lineup includes Jelani Alladin, Jacqueline Antaramian, Antonio Banderas, Laura Benanti, Kim Blanck, Ally Bonino, Danielle Brooks, Jenn Colella, Elvis Costello, Daniel Craig, Alysha Deslorieux, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Holly Gould, Danai Gurira, Stephanie Hsu, David Henry Hwang, Oscar Isaac, Nikki M. James, Alicia Keys, John Leguizamo, John Lithgow, Audra McDonald, Grace McLean, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kelli O’Hara, Mia Pak, Suzan-Lori Parks, David Hyde Pierce, Phylicia Rashad, Liev Schreiber, Martin Sheen, Phillipa Soo, Meryl Streep, Stingand Trudie Styler, Will Swenson, Shaina Taub, Kuhoo Verma, Ada Westfall, and Kate Wetherhead. As previously planned for the June 1 ceremony, the gala includes a special tribute to this year’s honorees Sam Waterston and Audrey and Zygi Wilf.

Read more at Playbill

Meet Theater’s Most Famous Superfan: Hillary Clinton

Alyse Alan Louis, as Hillary Clinton in the Public Theatre production of SOFT POWER by David Henry Hwang.

She’s been to 39 shows since the 2016 election, and believes Broadway will return. But she doesn’t have the “gumption” to see herself depicted just yet.

Hillary Clinton has long loved theater — back in the day, she wore out a “Camelot” cast album and got standing room tickets to the original production of “Hair.”

A few dramatists have started writing about you. Last year a play called “Hillary and Clinton” imagined your 2008 campaign in an alternate universe, and then there was a musical called “Soft Power” that featured a character named Hillary Rodham Clinton who dances and sings and eats a lot of ice cream.

(Laughing) Well in my house, the dancing, singing and eating ice cream does go on. [But] I have not had the courage to go see anything about me. Sometimes in a pre-existing production, somebody will have a reference to me, and I obviously catch that. But to go and see a play about me — I haven’t gotten the gumption up to do that yet.

Read more at New York Times

NEW YORK CITY: The civic-minded theatre company Waterwell has announced a national series called The Flores Exhibits: Conversations Around the Country

Aimed at creating meaningful conversations about immigration. The Flores Exhibits is a collection of videos featuring artists, lawyers, advocates, and immigrants reading the testimonies of children held in detention facilities at the U.S. border. This fall, Waterwell is partnering with organizations across the country to present a series of virtual events to spark conversations about U.S. immigration policy. All videos are currently available online.

The Flores Exhibits was originally conceived by artistic director Lee Sunday Evans and co-created by Waterwell and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition in collaboration with the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic and the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School. The testimonies for the project were gathered in June 2019 by a team of lawyers who visited detention facilities as monitors for the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, which limits the length of time and conditions under which children can be held in immigration detention. In response to discovering the severely detrimental conditions in detention centers, members of that team reached out to artists, journalists, and community leaders to share the stories of those affected and advocate for protections for children in government care.

The videos in The Flores Exhibits feature Elizabeth Rodriguez, Sakina Jaffrey, Kathleen Chalfant, David Schwimmer, Malina Weisman, Arian Moayed, Bitta Mostofi, Jeffrey S. Chase, David Henry Hwang, and Luis Mancheno reading exactly what is presented in a child’s sworn testimony.

Read more at American Theatre

Playing On Air Announces Stevenson Prize Winner, Selected by Lynn Nottage, Rebecca Taichman and David Henry Hwang

Theater podcast and public radio program Playing on Air has announced the winners of the third annual James Stevenson Prize for Comedic Short Plays. The nation's largest open-submission short play prize, the Stevenson Prize awards a professional audio production and $6,000 cash prize to the play that best celebrates the comic wit of longtime author, illustrator, and New Yorker cartoonist James Stevenson.

From 960 open submissions, the 2020 winner of the Stevenson Prize is "I think it's worth pointing out that I've been very serious throughout this entire discussion or, Dave and Julia are stuck in a tree" by Mallory Jane Weiss.

The second prize of $3,000 goes to "S.W.A.T." by Jaymes Sanchez, and third prize of $1,000 goes to "The Donor" by Avery Deutsch.

This year's top plays were selected by an acclaimed panel of judges. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, Tony-winning director Rebecca Taichman, and Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang were joined by Playing on Air founder and Producing Artistic Director Claudia Catania and prize sponsor Josie Merck as jurors for the final round of scripts. All readers and judges scored scripts blind, with no knowledge of playwrights' past credits.

Read more at Broadway World

VIDEO: Watch a FLOWER DRUM SONG Reunion on Stars in the House

Stars in the House continues tonight (8pm) with a Flower Drum Song reunion with David Henry Hwang, Alvin Ing, Baayork Lee, Jose Llana and Lea Salonga.

Flower Drum Song was the eighth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway in 1958 and was then performed in the West End and on tour. It was adapted for a 1961 musical film. It last appeared on Broadway in 2002.

Read more at Broadway World

Playing On Air Announces Stevenson Prize Winner, Selected by Lynn Nottage, Rebecca Taichman and David Henry Hwang

The winner is 'I think it's worth pointing out that I've been very serious throughout this entire discussion or, Dave and Julia are stuck in a tree' by Mallory Jane Weiss.

Theater podcast and public radio program Playing on Air has announced the winners of the third annual James Stevenson Prize for Comedic Short Plays. The nation's largest open-submission short play prize, the Stevenson Prize awards a professional audio production and $6,000 cash prize to the play that best celebrates the comic wit of longtime author, illustrator, and New Yorker cartoonist James Stevenson.

From 960 open submissions, the 2020 winner of the Stevenson Prize is "I think it's worth pointing out that I've been very serious throughout this entire discussion or, Dave and Julia are stuck in a tree" by Mallory Jane Weiss.

The second prize of $3,000 goes to "S.W.A.T." by Jaymes Sanchez, and third prize of $1,000 goes to "The Donor" by Avery Deutsch.

This year's top plays were selected by an acclaimed panel of judges. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, Tony-winning director Rebecca Taichman, and Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang were joined by Playing on Air founder and Producing Artistic Director Claudia Catania and prize sponsor Josie Merck as jurors for the final round of scripts. All readers and judges scored scripts blind, with no knowledge of playwrights' past credits.

Read more at Industry Insider

VIDEO: Broadway Stars Talk Shutdown, the State of the Industry, and A Hopeful Future

Brian Stokes Mitchell, David Henry Hwang, John Lithgow, Christine Baranski, and more talk Covid-19 from Broadway's perspective.

The New Yorker is highlighting the trials and triumphs of Broadway throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

See some familiar Broadway faces including Brian Stokes Mitchell, David Henry Hwang, John Lithgow, Christine Baranski, and more join the feature to discuss their experiences in the coronavirus pandemic, from day one of the shutdown to the present.

Celebrating the resiliency of the industry and its members, look back on the last few months from the point of view of Broadway as its denizens grapple with the present, reflect on the past, and look to the hopeful future.

Read more at Broadway World

Stars in the House Welcomes Flower Drum Song's Lea Salonga, Jose Llana, More September 4

Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley's daily series benefits The Actors Fund.

Stars in the House, the daily live streamed concert series created by Playbill correspondent and SiriusXM Broadway host Seth Rudetsky and producer James Wesley, celebrates the 2002 Tony-nominated revival of Flower Drum Song September 4. Watch the stream in the video above beginning at 8 PM ET.

Guests include Tony winner Lea Salonga, Jose Llana, and Alvin Ing, librettist David Henry Hwang, and Tony recipient Baayork Lee, who appeared in the original 1958 production of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical.

The reworking of Flower Drum Song officially opened on Broadway in October 2002. Featuring direction and choreography by Robert Longbottom and a new book by Tony winner Hwang, the musical played 25 previews and 169 performances. The production was nominated for three 2003 Tony Awards.

James Wesley and Seth Rudetsky Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Stars in the House launched March 16 to promote support for The Actors Fundand its services in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. It has also raised funds for the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Read more at Playbill

Recording of SigSpace Summit: David Henry Hwang and Prof. Diane C. Fujino

Playwright David Henry Hwang (Mme. Butterfly, Golden Child)  hosted Diane C. Fujino, Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Santa Barbara, for the SigSpace Summit on Black-Asian Alliances on August 26, 2020. Their conversation explored the historical alliances between Black and Asian American progressive activists, and how that legacy can shape the future.

Watch video below.

Read more at UCSB

What the Coronavirus Pandemic Means for the Future of Broadway

The last time I attended a Broadway show—a buzzed-about revival of “West Side Story”—was on March 6th. Even then, a night at the theatre felt like a calculated risk: riding the A train, sitting close to strangers in the audience, going out for a post-theatre drink. The next Thursday, amid reports that a part-time Broadway usher had tested positive for covid-19, Broadway shut down completely. Theatre is ephemeral, but the idea of Broadway—a $1.8-billion industry and a major part of the city’s (and the country’s) artistic lifeblood—disappearing like a soap bubble was hard to fathom. “It was unimaginable that New York would not have theatre, would not have shows on Broadway, and crowds in Times Square every night,” the actor John Lithgow says in the video above.

The Broadway drought, which at this point seems certain to last into 2021, has coincided with another upheaval: the Black Lives Matter protests and the calls for change that they’ve inspired in the arts. Newly formed collectives such as Black Theatre United and We See You, White American Theatre have demanded active measures to counter structural racism onstage and off. No one is cheering the prolonged pause, but the shutdown might help to open up space for a deeper reckoning than would be possible with Broadway in full swing. “Once it is possible to begin bringing audiences back, it may also be the case that we have to think about lowering ticket prices, and maybe we will have a younger audience, and maybe we will have a more diverse audience,” the playwright David Henry Hwang says. “Out of all this tragedy, there might be some silver linings for Broadway.”

Read more at The New Yorker

The 2020 Tony Awards to Be Held Digitally This Fall

The 74th annual ceremony, originally scheduled for June 7, was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Tony Awards, having put its 74th annual ceremony on hold earlier this year, will head online in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, co-presenters of the annual tradition, have revealed that the 2020 proceedings will take place in the form of a digital ceremony this fall.

No word yet on further details, including an exact date.

Read more at Playbill

Santa Fe Opera @ Home: "M. Butterfly"

The author

The creation of M. Butterfly began on May 11, 1986, with a report by The New York Times’ Paris correspondent.

“A former French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer have been sentenced to six years in jail for spying for China after a two-day trial that traced a story of clandestine love and mistaken sexual identity. … Bernard Boursicot was accused of passing information to China after he fell in love with Shi Pei Pu, whom he believed for 20 years to be a woman. … Mr. Boursicot said their meetings had been hasty affairs that always took place in the dark. ‘He was very shy. I thought it was a Chinese custom.’ ”

The trial of Bernard Bouriscot and Shi Pei Pu

David Henry Hwang read the Times story and was convinced it had the potential to become a play. The then-28-year-old Angeleno had attended the Yale School of Drama for a year, dropping out of its graduate program when his plays began to be professionally performed at New York’s Public Theater and elsewhere.

Determined not to write a docudrama, Hwang did no further research into the news item. “Frankly, I didn’t want the ‘truth’ to interfere with my own speculations,” he wrote in an afterword to M. Butterfly.He even told Stuart Ostrow, who eventually produced the play, that he thought it could be “some great Madame Butterfly-like tragedy,” although he hadn’t yet made the conceptual connection between the opera and the real-life story.

Read more at Santa Fe New Mexican

John Lithgow: A mentor on and off camera

In the span of his long acting career, one thing is sure; John Lithgow is a mentor, both literally and figuratively.

Lithgow’s best-known role is arguably the alien commander Dick Solomon in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, which ran from 1996 to 2001.

Despite the sitcom’s massive popularity, Lithgow said his most memorable role was in the award-winning 1988 play M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang.

Starring alongside BD Wong, he plays a French civil servant who falls in love with a star of the Peking opera, not knowing that the woman is a spy and actually a man cross-dressing in order to seduce him and extract information.

“An extraordinary, preposterous story, but David Henry Hwang took that and turned it into an extraordinary metaphor for the differences between the East and the West in particular, but Western men and Eastern women,” he said.

Read more at Jakarta Post

SONGS FROM THE SANTA FE OPERA at Home Computer Screens

On August l, 2020, Songs from the Santa Fe Operapresented Episode. 5: M. Butterfly. The opera by composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang, was to have been premiered on this date. We heard an usher playing the musical call to the non-existent audience. We saw a beautifully marked butterfly gliding through the empty open air theater and heard the "Humming Chorus" from Ruo's opera pleasingly sung by Apprentices: Stephen Carroll, Hayan Kim, Seiyoung Kim, Nicholas Martorano, Nate Mattingly, Jana McIntyre, Elliott Paige, Heather Petrie, Elizabeth Picker, Rachel Policar, and Jarrett Porter. John Arida accompanied at the piano and Susanne Sheston conducted. While they were singing, watchers online saw a tour of the grounds as the sun set behind the Jemez Mountains.

Read more at Broadway World