Following their sold out run of Forever Plaid, Theatre Raleigh continues their 2022 Main Stage Season with Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang. Leading this production are Hansel Tan (Off-Broadway: Ping Pong and Unlock'd) as DHH and Pascal Pastrana (Broadway: Mean Girls) as Marcus.
Tony-Winning Playwright David Henry Hwang Receives Honorary Doctorate At Cal State LA Commencement /
Hwang is a Tony Award winner for his work M. Butterfly, a three-time Tony Award nominee, a three-time Obie Award winner and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Preeminent Asian American playwright David Henry Hwang received an honorary doctorate during Commencement 2022 at Cal State LA.
Hwang is a Tony Award winner for his work M. Butterfly, a three-time Tony Award nominee, a three-time Obie Award winner and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the most-produced living American opera librettist, whose works have been honored with two GRAMMY Awards.
Cal State LA and the California State University Board of Trustees conferred an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts to Hwang during the Commencement ceremony for the College of Arts and Letters on May 26, which took place during Cal State LA's 75th anniversary.
Hermitage Major Theatre Award winner thrives on collaborative process /
A theater maker committed to creating new work in a collaborative process to push for radical change through her art is the second recipient of the new Hermitage Major Theatre Award.
Shariffa Ali, who was born in Kenya, raised in South Africa, and now lives in New York City, will receive a $35,000 commission to create a new work that will have its first presentation in a major theater center late next year.
Ali was chosen from among four theater artists selected as finalists by a prominent jury that includes two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (who is also nominated for two Tony Awards this season), Pulitzer Prize winner David Henry Hwang and critically acclaimed playwright and actress Regina Taylor.
Étienne Dupuis, Luca Pisaroni, Adela Zaharia, Nicole Car, Konu Kim, Meigui Zhang, Hongni Wu Headline San Francisco Opera Streams During Summer Season /
San Francisco Opera has announced that it will live stream three of its summer season performances.
The company will stream “Don Giovanni” on June 12. The production will star Étienne Dupuis, Luca Pisaroni, Adela Zaharia, Nicole Car, Christina Gansch, and Amitai Pati. Bertrand de Billy conducts.
That will be followed up by a stream of “Dream of The Red Chamber” by David Henry Hwang and Bright Sheng. The opera will star Konu Kim, Meigui Zhang, Hongni Wu, Karen Chia-ling Ho, Sabina Kim, Francis Jue, and Guang Yang. Darrell Ang conducts. That stream is set to take place on June 19, 2022.
The final stream of the summer season will be “Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi” on June 30, 2022. The performance, which will be conducted by Eun Sun Kim, will star Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Étienne Dupuis, Soloman Howard, and Nicole Car.
Columbia University School Of The Arts Presents New Plays Festival /
Columbia University School of the Arts presents an expanded festival of new plays written by Columbia MFA Playwriting Students. The esteemed faculty who have nurtured these students, including Tony©, Pulitzer, and Obie Award winners such as David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, Charles Mee, and Rogelio Martinez invite you to experience these innovative new playwrights.
This is the second round of our New Plays Festival presenting the work of the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Playwrights of Columbia's MFA Theatre Program. The festival will run continuously throughout the summer.
Phoenix Festival Theater in Tarzan /
Phoenix Festival Theater will perform Tarzan June 17-19 at the Amoss Center in Bel Air.
Based on Disney’s epic animated musical adventure and Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan features heart-pumping music by rock legend Phil Collins and a book by Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang. High-flying excitement and hits such as the Academy Award winning “You’ll Be in My Heart,” as well as “Son of Man” and “Two Worlds,” make Tarzan an unforgettable theatrical experience. The show is being directed by Bambi Johnson.
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. Tarzan struggles to navigate a jungle, thick with emotion, as he discovers his animal upbringing clashing with his human instincts.
San Francisco Opera Livestreams Summer Season Performances /
San Francisco Opera announces livestreams of select performances from the 2022 Summer Season. Opera lovers around the world have the opportunity to livestream Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni, Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang's Dream of the Red Chamber and the Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi concert, featuring Nicole Car, Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Etienne Dupuis and Soloman Howard.
A new 48-hour on-demand feature is also available for Don Giovanni and Dream of the Red Chamber. Tickets are $25 and now available at sfopera.com and by phone (415) 864-3330.
M. Butterfly grows its wings /
In a break with convention, this review of M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang will start with a note from the production’s directors, Tungsten Tang and Hetty Opayinka:
‘As rehearsals for M. Butterfly progressed, both cast and crew doubted the suitability for a cisgender woman to play the role of Song Liling in 2022. The result of this has been that Charmaine Au-Young has taken the difficult decision to step down as Song and instead contribute to the production she has tirelessly worked on, as an ensemble member. Jaden Tsui will take on the role of Song Liling. We would like to stress that this was a mutual decision and not one forced upon anyone. Yet, even as we try to update this complex and heartbreaking play, we recognise that we do not have all the answers. We are reassured by the fact that our interpretation will facilitate discussion on these pertinent issues amongst our audience members.’
Naturally, a last-minute re-cast for whatever reason is always difficult, and Jaden Tsui (playing Song Liling) was holding a script on stage for much of last night’s performance. However, they carried it off impressively, still giving a sensitive and nuanced performance. The figure of Song Liling is an enigma for much of the play, containing a tension between the real person with agency and the oppressive fantasy of Song’s lover, French diplomat René Gallimard (Joe Harrington). Though the enigma is partially unravelled through Gallimard’s retelling of events, Tsui maintains an enigmatic level to the character, weaving a searing vulnerability and a hard, sardonic, edge which was compelling.
Pulitzer Prize Finalist David Henry Hwang and Composer Huang Ruo Announced for ASCAP Experience Session for AAPI Heritage Month /
NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) – The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) has announced its next ASCAP Experience session – Metamorphosis: David Henry Hwang & Huang Ruo in Conversation. The session will be a part of ASCAP’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month celebration.
On Thursday (May 19), the event premieres at 3 pm ET / noon PT on @ASCAP YouTube. In the conversation between three-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist, playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) and composer and librettist Huang Ruo (Paradise Interrupted, American Soldier, M. Butterfly), the two icons of their field will discuss including themes of the Asian-American experience into opera, concert music, and theater.
M. Butterfly: Preview /
Of all the lies the West perpetuates “Colonialism is over!” may be the most heinous. M. Butterfly, the ADC’s Week 3 show works to expose this façade, whilst also “exploring the intersections of gender, queerness and culture.” I sat down with the show’s co-director Tungsten Tang and actress Charmaine Au-Yeung to find out more.
For those not familiar with the production, M. Butterfly, written by David Henry Hwang, follows “Rene Gallimard (Joe Harrington), a French diplomat who falls in love with a Chinese opera singer, Song.” Yet as Charmaine points out, Gallimard does not fall in love with Song but rather with the “orientalist idea of Song” – his projection of Song who he sees as “his poor little treasure”, a “weak, delicate little lotus blossom.” This fetishization and feminisation of Song, Charmaine argues, speaks to a wider issue of Western perceptions of “Asians as feminine, delicate and weak.”
2022 Asia Arts Game Changer Awards /
The Asia Arts Game Changer Awards, celebrating its 10th anniversary, is a signature event honoring important figures across the arts who have made a significant impact on our society. This signature event for Asia Society Museum brings together artists, curators, filmmakers, playwrights, musicians, choreographers, international collectors, arts professionals, and Asia Society trustees and patrons to celebrate excellence in the arts from across Asia and the diaspora.
For this milestone year, Asia Society will be honoring David Henry Hwang, Y.Z. Kami, Min Jin Lee, and Sarah Sze—trailblazing Asian Americans across the arts—in conjunction with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month. The cocktail reception will feature a special performance featuring excerpts from The Rift, a new opera by David Henry Hwang and Huang Ruo about Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial. The dinner menu will be conceived by Michelin-star chef, Vikas Khanna, who will be attending as a guest of honor.
Opera Meets Film: How David Cronenberg & David Henry Hwang’s ‘M. Butterfly’ Subverts Puccini’s ‘Madama Butterfly’ & Explores Deceptive Reveries /
What would you do, say, and believe for love, and most importantly, what would you ignore for the sake of love? Such standardized questions seem to permeate the fabric of the operatic world from time immemorial to the present, and the well is not showing signs of running dry anytime soon. But we must ask a second and more important question: How does one willfully neglect the truth for a momentary illusion? The answer to this has yet to be adequately fulfilled.
As Friedrich Nietzsche starkly noted in “Beyond Good and Evil” (1886), “What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil.” Funny enough, the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, for whom the play and film adaptation of “Madame Butterfly” owe their artistic credit, is recorded as having been incredibly libertine with his amorous pursuits, and as the maestro put himself, “I am a mighty hunter of wild fowl, operatic librettos and attractive women.” Thus, most of the composer’s operas revolve around the tribulations induced by Cupid, her beguiling exploits, and the often unnerving consequences of the tantalizing feeling on its victims.
But in David Cronenberg’s 1993 film tersely titled “M. Butterfly”—which itself is a screen-adaptation of David Henry Hwang’s 1988 play—Nietzschean cynicism towards love’s completely sublime nature is coated around a thick gloss of romanticized surreality which is not wholly unreliable due to its appeal to standardized conceptions of Orientalism, the fanciful creations of the Far-Eastern and Asiatic worlds, and essentialist conceptions of what the people (especially women) behaved like. The film also deals heavily with the contentious topic of racial fetishism, just one sub-parameter of Orientalism, and the portentous effects of decoupling oneself from reality and rational thinking as a result.
Professor David Henry Hwang Honored with Playwrights’ Sidewalk Star /
Playwriting Concentration Head and Associate Professor David Henry Hwang has been named this year’s Playwrights’ Sidewalk Inductee as part of the Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway.
Hwang’s name will be added to a star on the sidewalk outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street, in downtown Manhattan––a permanent monument to Off-Broadway playwrights.
Photos: Backstage at the 37th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards /
Last night, the 2022 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were held at NYU Skirball beginning at 7:00pm EST.
Taking home top prizes were Kimberly Akimbo and Oratorio For Living Things. Special honorees this year included Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Deirdre O'Connell and Playwrights' Sidewalk Inductee, David Henry Hwang.
Check out the full list of winners here.
2022 Lucille Lortel Awards winners list /
Winners of the 2022 Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were announced in a ceremony on May 1, 2022, at NYU Skirball. New musicals “Kimberly Akimbo” and “Oratorio for Living Things” tied for the most wins, with three trophies each. The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by TDF.
The cast of Ars Nova’s “Oratorio For Living Things” took home the inaugural award for Outstanding Ensemble, while the Broadway-bound “Kimberly Akimbo” nabbed the two individual musical acting categories, with Lead Performance going to Victoria Clark and Featured Performance going to Bonnie Milligan.
Special honorees this year included Deirdre O’Connell (“Dana H.”), who was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by Heidi Schreck; and David Henry Hwang, who was inducted onto the famed Playwrights’ Sidewalk by Jeanine Tesori.
Winners of Off-Broadway’s 2022 Lucille Lortel Awards /
In a return to a live in-person ceremony for the first time in three years, winners were announced tonight (Sunday, May 1) for the 37th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. The event was hosted at the NYU Skirball Center by three pairs of stars from the stage and screen: Jared Grimes (Broadway’s Funny Girl) and Jeff Hiller (HBO’s Somebody Somewhere); Krysta Rodriguez and Jelani Alladin (Hercules); and Jennifer Simard and Christopher Sieber (Company).
Outstanding Play: English, written by Sanaz Toossi, produced by Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theatre Company;
Outstanding Musical: Kimberly Akimbo, book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Jeanine Tesori, based on the play by David Lindsay-Abaire, produced by Atlantic Theater Company;
Lifetime Achievement: Deirdre O’Connell;
Playwrights’ Sidewalk Inductee: David Henry Hwang.
Win 2022 Lucille Lortel Awards /
The Off-Broadway League and Lucille Lortel Theatre's 37th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway were handed out at NYU Skirball Center May 1 at 7 PM, and Kimberly Akimboand Oratorio for Living Things were the evening's big winners with three Lortel wins each.
Atlantic Theater Company's Kimberly Akimbo, slated to make the jump to Broadway this fall, took Outstanding Musical, along with Lead Performer in a Musical (Victoria Clark) and Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical (Bonnie Milligan). Ars Nova's Oratorio for Living Things took home honors for Outstanding Director (Lee Sunday Evans), Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Sound Design (Nick Kourtides). Both went into the evening as the most nominated productions, with six nominations each.
As previously announced, Deirdre O'Connell was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's ceremony, and David Henry Hwang was inducted onto the Playwrights' Sidewalk.
Jane Lynch & More to Host 2022 Lucille Lortel Awards /
As previously reported, this year's Lucille Lortel Awards, honoring outstanding achievement off-Broadway, will take place on May 1 at NYU Skirball. The evening's hosts and presenters will include Funny Girl's Jane Lynch and Ramin Karimloo, Jelani Alladin, Jeff Hiller and Murray Hill. Guests also include Anna Deavere Smith, Bonnie Milligan, David Cromer, David Henry Hwang…
A Complete 2022 Broadway Awards Season Calendar /
The 2022 theatre awards season is quickly approaching, and keeping track of all of the important dates for the many ceremonies and their corresponding nomination announcements is no easy feat. Stay up to date on all the need-to-know facts with BroadwayWorld's full Awards Season Calendar below!
37TH ANNUAL LORTEL AWARDS
Nominations: April 7
Announced by- Lilli Cooper and Lea DeLaria
View the nominees!
Ceremony: May 1, 7pm ET at NYU Skirball Center
Host- TBA
Special Awards- Deirdre O'Connell (Lifetime Achievement Award) and David Henry Hwang (Playwrights' Sidewalk Inductee)
Update on CHESS Broadway Production and AIDA /
Tim Rice revealed in a tweet that he is set to fly to New York for discussions about Aida, and the Broadway revival of Chess.
Rice previously revealed that plans are underway for a Broadway revival of Chess.
"All in all, despite enumerable mishandlings, Chess has more than held its own on the stages of the world. And we plan to come back to Broadway one day fairly soon. A team is in place."
A North American tour of Elton John and Tim Rice's Tony-winning Broadway smash Aida was previously set to premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse in 2021. Broadway World previously revealed in 2020, that the musical would no longer be a part of Paper Mill's season. Disney Theatric Productions President Thomas Schumacher revealed to the New York Times that Aida will open in Germany in 2022.
The production was previously set to play Charlotte, Chicago, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Nashville, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., among other cities following its run at Paper Mill.
The new production, updated and re-imagined, retains the beloved Tony and Grammy-winning score and features a book revised by David Henry Hwang, who co-authored the acclaimed original production with Linda Woolverton and Robert Falls.