Danai Gurira, David Henry Hwang & More to Take Part in Ojai Playwrights Conference CONNECTIONS Benefit 2021 / May 15, 2021 by David Hwang

The event will feature an impressive line up of playwrights sharing an array of inspiring songs and stories drawing on the theme of 'connections.

The Ojai Playwrights Conference is presenting "Connections," a virtual celebration to benefit the OPC 2021 season, on Saturday, June 12 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time/ 8 p.m. Eastern Time. A minimum donation of $20 is requested to watch this special 90-minute show.

The event will feature an impressive line up of playwrights sharing an array of inspiring songs and stories drawing on the theme of 'connections,' the necessity for deeper and more sustainable human connections as we move together toward new horizons.

The playwrights, many of whose work has been developed at OPC, include Luis Alfaro, Jon Robin Baitz, Father Greg Boyle, Bill Cain, Culture Clash, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Danai Gurira, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Julia Izumi, James Morrison and his son Seamus Morrison, Jeanine Tesori and Charlayne Woodard.

A star-studded cast will be announced at a later date.

Read more at Broadway World

Awakening’ #StopAsianHate PSA Honors Asian Americans in Animation / May 15, 2021 by David Hwang

Oscar-nominated producer Peilin Chou directs powerful short film with the help of artists and creators including Ronnie del Carmen, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Jinko Gotoh, Sanjay Patel, Gennie Rim, John Aoshima, and Henry Yu, in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Oscar-nominated producer Peilin Chou (Over the Moon) has directed a personal, and powerful new video, Awakening, a #StopAsianHate PSA that highlights the contributions of Asian Americans to the art of animation. Released today in response to the rise in Asian violence across the US, and in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM), Awakeningbrings together a great line-up of artists and creators that includes Daniel Dae Kim, Bowen Yang, Ken Jeong, Phillipa Soo, Margaret Cho, and BD Wong, as well as animation industry stalwarts Ronnie del Carmen, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Jinko Gotoh, Sanjay Patel, Gennie Rim, John Aoshima, and Henry Yu, among others. The film was officially released this morning by CAPE, the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, a group founded in 1991 to advance representation in Hollywood through engaging creative talent and executive leadership, providing cultural consulting, and championing projects to support their success.

Watch: CAPE Spotlights Asian-American Artists for AAPI History Month / May 15, 2021 by David Hwang

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the organization CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) has shared Awakening — a powerful video that celebrates Asian Americans, with a spotlight on artists whose work has changed the world. The piece opens with reflections on the growing number of racist attacks against these communities in the U.S. and what it means to be Asian American, before diving into a spotlight on the beautiful, affecting contributions AAPI artists have made to the world of animation.

“This past March, the morning after the incidents in Atlanta, like many I felt horrified, angry and completely helpless. I wanted so badly to take action, and figure out a way to contribute something positive, but I felt overwhelmed and paralyzed about what any one person could do in the face of such senseless acts and so much hate. After a day of reflection, as a filmmaker and producer, I decided to approach this the only way I knew how — by telling stories,” said Oscar-nominated producer Peilin Chou (Over the Moon), who directed the video.

Charlayne Woodard, David Henry Hwang, Ann James, and Robyn Hurder Join LIVE AT THE LORTEL Lineup / May 10, 2021 by David Hwang

The live interviews will take place Mondays at 7:00 PM EST, offering theater fans the opportunity to view interviews and participate in a Q&A with artists.

The Lucille Lortel Theatre today announces its upcoming May guest lineup for its popular "Live at The Lortel" podcast series. To end its 2020-2021 season, the interview series Tony Award-winning actress and playwright Charlayne Woodard (May 3), Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (May 10), theater educator and intimacy director Ann James (May 17), and Tony Award-nominated actress Robyn Hurder (May 24).

The live interviews will take place Mondays at 7:00 PM EST, offering theater fans the opportunity to view interviews and participate in a Q&A with artists. To join the audience, please visit www.liveatthelortel.com.

Read more at Broadway World

In the News: Lea Salonga, David Henry Hwang Named to API Impactful Leaders List, Rock-Baroque Hybrid My Cyrano to Play NYC / May 10, 2021 by David Hwang

Lea Salonga, David Henry Hwang, More Named to API Impactful Leaders List
A number of Asian and Pacific Islander theatre artists were included on Gold House’s 2021 A100 List, honoring API individuals who have made a substantial impact in the past year. Among those recognized are Jagged Little Pill producer Vivek J. Tiwary, Tony winners Lea Salonga and David Henry Hwang, Auli'i Cravalho, Daniel Dae Kim, Gemma Chan, George Takei, Kelly Marie Tran, and Riz Ahmed. “Recognizing the achievements of the AAPI community couldn’t be more timely than right now. The tragic events of the recent past only serve to underscore the need to celebrate the many ways Asian Americans contribute to our country and the world,” said Kim, who also served as an A100 Icon judge. Click here to see the full list.

Donald Kirk: How anti-Asianism explodes in wake of the 'China virus' / May 5, 2021 by David Hwang

Anti-Asian prejudice in the U.S. is an old story with a modern twist. Japanese people were placed in internment camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the American president through the war, viewed them as a security threat. Chinese immigration was banned for a time after thousands came from China in the late 19th century to work on building railroads.

In its reincarnation, Asian Americans of widely differing national and racial backgrounds are vilified and sometimes attacked. Violence has increased since the outbreak of what Donald Trump as president called the “China virus.” Almost every day you hear of someone punched or knocked down. More often, Asian Americans are jeered or threatened, verbally if not physically.

“Bigotry and brutality targeting Asian Americans has spiked over the past year as racist rhetoric linked to the coronavirus has soared,” says the Daily News,“New York’s hometown newspaper.” Since March “shunning, spitting and violent physical assault were among the 3,795 incidents reported by victims nationwide,” the article goes on, citing figures compiled by the group Stop AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Hate.

Show business names as diverse as Korean American comedian Margaret Cho and Chinese American playwright David Henry Hwang talked about experiences ranging from physical attacks to snubs to name-calling. “It’s really more about being very invisible within Hollywood, within the media,” Cho is quoted as saying. “It’s very weird when you’re just excluded from the conversation.” Hwang, who was stabbed in the neck a few years ago in Brooklyn, observed that “Asians have always been stereotyped as perpetual foreigners.”

Yellow Face: A comedy that runs hot against today’s backdrop of rising sinophobia! / May 5, 2021 by David Hwang

There’s room to speculate that a play addressing the news headlines and Broadway scandals of the Clinton era might feel a little off the boil in terms of topicality. Its issues a little stewed.

Not so Yellow Face. David Henry Hwang’s rueful 2007 comedy runs hot against today’s backdrop of rising sinophobia, assertive expressions of all forms of identity and superpower realpolitik.

Hwang’s play weaves several strands, most of them documentary, some fictional. One draws on Hwang’s leading involvement in the 1990 protests against the “yellow face” casting of British actor Jonathan Pryce in an Asian role in Broadway production of Miss Saigon.

Deliciously complex: Don’t miss this thoughtful study of racism / May 5, 2021 by David Hwang

Helen Kim in Yellow Face, which packs an emotional punch that belies its modest setting. CREDIT:CLARE HAWLEY

On stage right now in the tiny Kings Cross Theatre is a small but significant revelation.

Dinosaurus Productions and bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company are staging the remarkably assured, deliciously complex Australian premiere of Yellow Face.While independent works are often charmingly rough around the edges, there is nothing shabby here. In a consistently funny but deeply thoughtful production, the play comes to playful, acerbic, and sometimes poignant life.

Written by David Henry Hwang, we follow a fictionalised version of the playwright – DHH (the brilliant Shan-Ree Tan). After a very public attempt to ensure a Broadway production of Miss Saigon is authentically cast, DHH mistakenly hires a white actor (Adam Marks, a superbly frustrating portrait of white privilege with puppy-dog eyes) to play the Asian lead in his next play.

The Australian premiere of the celebrated play by Asian-American Broadway success story David Henry Hwang / May 5, 2021 by David Hwang

**Jonathan Chan and Shan-Ree Tan. Photo credit: Clare Hawley**

Yellow Face

It is not such a strange move that a playwright should make themself the central character in their own work, but in David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face, it is an obviously absurd conceit. Fictionally, the Asian-American writer commits the theatrical cardinal sin, by mistakenly casting a white man to play one of his Asian characters. Hilarity ensues, perhaps unsurprisingly, in this quirky comedy about race relations in America, and racial representation in the arts more broadly.

Much has changed, in these political discussions, since the play’s original 2007 premiere. Enjoying its Australian premiere at Kings Cross Theatre, some of its arguments seem slightly dated, as does some of its humour. Still, the essence of what it wishes to impart remains valuable. The current resurgence of anti-Asian sentiment, most notably in post-Trump USA and in the middle of a global crisis, has brought back analysis and commentary around the concept of the “model minority”. Hwang certainly embodies this idea, being one of the biggest success stories of Asian-Americans who have made it on Broadway.

Theatre Review: Kings Cross Theatre’s Yellow Face will make you laugh, then break your heart / May 5, 2021 by David Hwang

Written by David Henry Hwang, Yellow Face at Kings Cross Theatre is a semi-autobiographical play that features the playwright himself as the protagonist. Set in America over the course of the 1990s, Yellow Facefocuses particularly on the inception, creation, release and subsequent failure of Hwang’s 1993 play Face Value, and everything that follows.

When we first meet Hwang (Shan-Ree Tan) he is a celebrated, Tony Award-winning playwright. Upon hearing the news that the upcoming Broadway play Miss Saigon, will star a white, British actor in the starring role (of an Asian man), Hwang writes a public letter of protest against the casting.

The uproar that ensues is told through the media headlines from various publications and, combined with the pressure of trying to write a new play, Hwang starts to consider if perhaps he should have just kept his mouth shut.

5 insightful plays to peek into the AAPI theater scene / May 3, 2021 by David Hwang

Not familiar with AAPI theater?

Not a problem, we have collected some fabulous plays you can get yourself started with. This week, we have gathered the works by Frank Chin, David Henry Hwang, Jay Kuo, and Diana Son.

Soft Power, David Henry Hwang

The story begins as Xue Xing, an entertainment producer from Shanghai, travels to America for work and falls in love with Hilary Clinton.

Xing then attempts to recruit a character (who is DHH’s theatrical avatar) to compose a Chinese audience-oriented musical. The development of the plot is intertwined with DHH’s real-life experiences – particularly a sidewalk stabbing in the neck that almost left DDH near death in 2015.

Live at the Lortel Interview Series Announces May Lineup of Guests / May 3, 2021 by David Hwang

The virtual conversation series hosted by Eric Ostrow, with co-hosts Joy DeMichelle and John-Andrew Morrison, will welcome Tony-nominated actor and playwright Charlayne Woodard (Ain't Misbehavin') May 3, Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Flower Drum Song) May 10, theatre educator and intimacy director Ann James May 17, and current Tony nominee Robyn Hurder (Moulin Rouge!) May 24. The live interviews take place at 7 PM ET, with podcast episodes released the following week. For more information or to join live, click here.

Charlayne Woodard, David Henry Hwang, Ann James, and Robyn Hurder Join LIVE AT THE LORTEL Lineup / May 3, 2021 by David Hwang

The Lucille Lortel Theatre today announces its upcoming May guest lineup for its popular "Live at The Lortel" podcast series. To end its 2020-2021 season, the interview series Tony Award-winning actress and playwright Charlayne Woodard (May 3), Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (May 10), theater educator and intimacy director Ann James (May 17), and Tony Award-nominated actress Robyn Hurder (May 24).

How Theater Community Mobilized to Stop Asian Hate / April 21, 2021 by David Hwang

In response to the shooting in Atlanta and the rise in hate crimes it underscored, Asian American theater artists took action, organizing support and self-care programs for the Asian American community while using their platforms as performers to speak out.

The two guests on this week’s episode of Variety’s Stagecraft podcast, Christine Toy Johnson and Leslie Ishii, were among the theater creators who appeared in “Stronger Together. And Stronger Than Ever” (pictured), the video statement released by the Consortium of Asian American Theatres and Artists (CAATA) and featuring Lea Salonga, David Henry Hwang, Ruthie Ann Miles and Telly Leung, among many others. “It was to say: ‘We’re strong. We have come together in solidarity, and we’re actually stronger because we’re together and we’ll be moving this way as we go forward,'” said Ishii, the board president of CAATA and the artistic director at Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska.

Disney, from Pinocchio to Hercules: all live-action remakes in development / April 17, 2021 by David Hwang

During the Investor Day of last December 2020, in addition to announcing an avalanche of titles coming for the Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar franchises, Disney also officially unveiled what the future holds in terms of projects live-action inspired by his animated classics, announcing the development of three new remakes - Pinocchio, Peter Pan & Wendy e The little Mermaid - and a prequel de The Lion King. However, thanks to the always punctual Hollywood trade we know that the studio is not only working on these four products, but on many more: from the Hercules franchise anticipated by the Russo brothers to the sequels of Aladdin e The Jungle Book.
While cinemas around the world (or almost) and Disney + are preparing to welcome Cruella with Emma Stone from next May 28th, therefore, we have decided to collect all of them in this article the remakes and their respective sequels in progress at Walt Disney Studios. Before leaving, however, we specify that none of the films listed below have yet obtained an official release date.

The hunchback of Notre Dame

Almost two years after the House of Mouse hired David Henry Hwang to write the screenplay for the live-action The Hunchback of Notre Dame, last January one of the producers involved, Josh Gad, finally confirmed that the film is still in development e "it's getting closer and closer". Unfortunately at the moment we don't know much about the project, but according to the first reports it could be Gad himself who plays the role of the sweet bell ringer Quasimodo.

The Kennedy Center is turning 50 with a year-long celebration of new works and special performances — in person, no less / April 17, 2021 by David Hwang

The Skylight Pavilion is reflected in a pool on the grounds of the Reach complex at the Kennedy Center. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

The Kennedy Center is planning an extended celebration of its 50th anniversary in its 2021-2022 season, featuring new commissions by Philip Glass and Esperanza Spalding, year-long artist residencies by the Roots and Robert Glasper, interactive exhibitions commemorating its first five decades and a new outdoor bronze statue of JFK. The festivities will end with a restaging of Leonard Bernstein’s theatrical “Mass,” which opened the center on Sept. 8, 1971.

“We’re never going to be 50 any other time,” Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter said over Zoom Monday. “Whenever you think about these milestones, you think, ‘Should we reflect back, or should we look forward?’ You can see that there are some things that are very much about looking forward . . . in particular the way we designed commissions of new works and the folks we have invited to lead our journey.”

The schedule includes the Washington National Opera’s “Written in Stone,” a collection of four commissions that “celebrate the diversity and acknowledge the struggles” of America, according to the arts center. Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz Jason Moran, Artistic Director of Social Impact Marc Bamuthi Joseph, composer Huang Ruo, playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang and composer and instrumentalist Kamala Sankaram are among the artists involved in the project. The four pieces will premiere together during a six-performance run March 5-25, 2022.

Reimagine Candlelight Vigil with David Henry Hwang / April 8, 2021 by David Hwang

This month's Reimagine Candlelight Vigil is co-led by Tony Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, David Henry Hwang. In particular, we will be mourning the lives lost to Asian hate.

Join us as we honor those we’ve lost since the pandemic and to explore the role of self-expression/arts in metabolizing our relationship with death, in the service of helping us all live more fully.

At this vigil, we are particularly looking to also engage in mourning lives lost to Asian hate, thereby elevating this topic more broadly.

We are excited to invite David Henry Hwang to join us for so many reasons; he has his own brushes with death to draw on, he’s explored themes of life and death and race through his own creative pursuits, and he’s a powerful voice in elevating a conversation about the atrocities long in the shadows against Asian Americans.

American Lyric Theater Presents FROM ERASED TO SELF-EMPOWERED: CELEBRATING BIPOC OPERA COMPOSERS AND LIBRETTISTS / April 5, 2021 by David Hwang

From April 6-10, American Lyric Theater (ALT) presents FROM ERASED TO SELF-EMPOWERED: CELEBRATING BIPOC OPERA COMPOSERS AND LIBRETTISTS, a three-part online seminar and roundtable, culminating in a free virtual concert performance April 10th at 7:30 pm et. The program is open to composers, librettists, educators and the general public. Advance registration is required.

"BIPOC composers and librettists have written for the Lyric Stage for centuries, but so many of their contributions have been consciously erased from the opera house - historically white, Euro-centric, racist institutions where select, self-anointed groups of people have gone out of their way to control the repertoire, who writes opera, who is represented on stage, and how," said ALT's Founder, Lawrence Edelson, explaining the impetus behind the program. "The tide is beginning to turn, but we still have a long way to go before opera reflects the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary American society."

Led by ALT's newly appointed Associate Artistic Director Kelly Kuo, the first part of the seminar will explore the history of remarkable BIPOC composers and librettists who wrote for the opera stage, but whose works have been erased from the repertoire. ComposersDaniel Bernard Roumain, Justine F. Chen, Anthony Davis, Huang Ruo, and Errollyn Wallen, and librettists Richard Wesley, David Henry Hwang, Kanika Ambrose, and Andrea Davis Pinkney, then join Kuo for two roundtables where they will discuss their own pathways into opera; why they are drawn to opera to tell their stories through music; navigating racism in the opera field; and the complementary value of allyship and self-empowerment in advancing BIPOC artists' contributions to the operatic repertoire.

This Is Who We Are: David Henry Hwang / April 5, 2021 by David Hwang

This Is Who We Are is a series featuring Columbia School of the Arts’ professors, covering careers, pedagogy, and art-making during a pandemic. Here, we talk with Associate Professor of Theatre and Playwriting Concentration Head David Henry Hwang about his most recent projects, the challenges of collaboration in the Zoom era, and the power of authenticity in art.

Last March, COVID-19 emerged as a long term threat to our health and our patterns of daily living. Activities we might have taken for granted—dining in a restaurant, booking plane tickets, or seeing a Broadway show—became unavailable as state and local governments moved to stop the spread of the virus. Almost a year later, with over 51 million fully vaccinated Americans, many of the country’s most hard-hit industries have managed a slow return to normal.

But Broadway, one of New York City’s most defining and beloved features, remains closed, not expected to reopen until September of 2021. Despite the necessary but disheartening closures, many artists have demonstrated considerable resiliency, creating virtual projects or working in anticipation of the day when their art will have an in-person audience again.

Asian American and Pacific Islanders Resources for Racial Justice / April 5, 2021 by David Hwang

Racism against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders has a long and painful history. In light of the recent increase in hate crimes, this history has become all the more urgent, even as “model minority” myths obscure a clear picture of this persistent struggle. This evolving list, compiled by multiple contributors across departments at MoMA, brings together readings and films as well as links to grassroots organizations and community businesses that you can support immediately to make sure the history we’ve inherited is not the future we perpetuate.
–Simon Wu

Some Readings

Gordon H. Chang, Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad (Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020)

Gordon H. Chang, “Whose ‘Barbarism’? Whose ‘Treachery’? Race and Civilization in the Unknown United States-Korea War of 1871,” The Journal of American History 89, no. 4 (2003): 1331-365.

Iris Chang, The Chinese in America: a Narrative History (New York: Penguin Books, 2003)

Some Listening

Hear David Henry Hwang discuss Martin Wong’s Stanton Near Forsyth Street with curator Michelle Kuo, as part of the MoMA and BBC Series The Way I See It

Find more at MOMA