'M. Butterfly': The essentials / August 1, 2022 by David Hwang

Cinese Opera singer Shi Pei Pu in performance

THE PREMIERE

July 30, 2022, at the Santa Fe Opera

THE PEOPLE

René Gallimard: a French diplomat posted to Beijing

Song Liling: a Chinese Opera performer

Manuel Toulon: French ambassador to China

Comrade Chin: People’s Liberation Army member

Marc: Gallimard’s childhood friend

THE PLOT

The action takes place in René Gallimard’s jail cell in Paris, where he is serving a sentence for treason, and in flashbacks to various dates and places in China and France. In 1964, Gallimard was sent to Beijing, where he fell in love with Song Liling upon hearing the Chinese Opera star sing “Un bel dì” from Madama Butterfly at a party. Their relationship develops, even as the Frenchman is unaware that Song is male. Gallimard begins to think of himself as the American sailor Pinkerton in Puccini’s opera and of Song as the geisha Butterfly.

Columbia University School of the Arts to Present New Plays Festival This Month / July 14, 2022 by David Hwang

Columbia University School of the Arts will present 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 third round of their 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.

Columbia University School of the Arts Presents A Festival of New Plays Written by Columbia MFA Playwriting Students / July 14, 2022 by David Hwang

Fiona Gorry-Hines, Evie Mason, Kate Pressman, Alaudin Ullah, Tré Calhoun, Kanika Asavari Vaish, morgan mcnaught, Clarity Bian, and Daniel Irving Rattner.

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 third 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.

From the Head of Playwriting, David Henry Hwang: "These plays have been created by visionary writers under extraordinary circumstances. Some were originally scheduled to be produced as far back as 2020; others were written during the pandemic itself. Like theatre itself, they have survived the shutdown of our art form to come roaring back to life. We are so proud of what our writers have achieved during these challenging and traumatic times. Enjoy the rebirth!"

Arama! Japan Interviews Keito Okamoto / June 27, 2022 by David Hwang

Starting today through July 10, Keito Okamoto will play the role of Song Liling in David Henry Hwang‘s play “M. Butterfly” at the New National Theatre Tokyo. The play will continue on to Osaka, Fukuoka, and Nagoya in July.

I recently sat down with Keito on a video call (all in English) to discuss the play, its LGBT content, his time in New York at drama school, his departure from Hey! Say! JUMP, and more. Check out Keito’s first English language interview below!

Five productions, including the world premiere of ‘M. Butterfly,’ will hit the high notes in Santa Fe / June 27, 2022 by David Hwang

The Santa Fe Opera will serve fresh twists on classics by Bizet, Rossini, Verdi and Wagner, spiced with the world premiere of “M. Butterfly.”

Based on the Tony Award-winning play of the same name, “M. Butterfly” germinated when the composer Huang Ruo’s opera “Dr. Sun Yat-sen” opened at Santa Fe in 2014. “M. Butterfly” will open July 30.

“He saw the play when he was back in college at Oberlin,” SFO general director Robert K. Meya said.

“M. Butterfly” playwright David Henry Hwang said he’d always imagined his piece transformed into an opera.

Santa Fe commissioned the work from the two artists.

David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, Directed by Aladdin's Telly Leung, Begins June 22 at Theatre Raleigh / June 27, 2022 by David Hwang

Performances of the 2007 work, inspired by a Miss Saigon casting controversy, continue through July 3 at the North Carolina venue.

Aladdin star Telly Leung directs Theatre Raleigh's production of Tony winner David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, which plays the TR Studio Theatre June 22-July 3.

The cast features Hansel Tan (Ping Pong) as DHH, Pascal Pastrana (Mean Girls) as Marcus, Alan Ariano (M. Butterfly) as HYH and Others, Liam Yates as Announcer and Others, Brook North as Stuart Ostro and Others, Ali Evarts as Jane and Others, and Kylie Robinson as Leah Anne Cho and Others, with standbys Tedd Szeto, Ada Chang, and Gus Allen.

Yellow Face blurs the lines between truth and fiction as Asian-American playwright Hwang leads a protest against the casting of a white performer, Jonathan Pryce, as the lead in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as “yellow face.” His position comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor for mixed-race, and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value.

Read more at Playbill

ALL AGENTS DEFECT: ESPIONAGE IN THE FILMS OF DAVID CRONENBERG / June 23, 2022 by David Hwang

While the director is often tied up with body horror, the great themes of espionage fiction are present in nearly all his work.

David Cronenberg is that rare filmmaker who is a genre unto himself, such that his name has become an adjective. Yet, when his name is invoked, it’s usually as shorthand for body horror. Certainly, and in spite of his objections, this is to be expected: more than any other director, Cronenberg has examined, in detail both coldly clinical and gleefully perverse, the ways in which psychosexual desire, trauma, and society’s increasing dependency on technology manifest in the gruesome evolution and/or evisceration of the human body.

Indeed, we see a fresh example of this in the promotion and reception of his latest film—his first in eight years—Crimes of the Future (available on VOD today), despite the fact, for as horrific as many of the images and ideas within it are, it’s not really a horror movie. That said, the last thing I want to do is make another tired argument over what counts as a horror movie. Rather, I want to make the case that Cronenberg deserves to be equally synonymous with a different genre, one that he’s spent as much time exploring as body horror.

That genre is espionage.

M. Butterfly. Based on David Henry Hwang’s stage play (itself loosely based a true story), the film sees an French diplomat (Jeremy Irons) engage in a passionate affair with a female Beijing opera singer (John Lone) who he discovers is not only actually a man, but a spy for the Chinese government sent to seduce him into revealing classified information

One of Cronenberg’s most underseen and underrated works, M. Butterfly holds up exceptionally well today, not necessarily as a trans drama (although it certainly approaches its subject matter with more sensitivity and sympathy than other, similarly-themed films from the same time) but as a damning indictment of white, Western orientalist fantasies and naivety.

RUTH LEON RECOMMENDS… DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER – SAN FRANCISCO OPERA / June 23, 2022 by David Hwang

Dream of the Red Chamber – San Francisco Opera

Click here to watch : Livestream is on June 19 at 2 pm PT and then available on demand until June 22

Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang’s Dream of the Red Chamber, the musical retelling of the 18th-century novel by Cao Xueqin, one of China’s literary masterworks, played to sold-out audiences during its world premiere run at San Francisco Opera in 2016. It now returns to San Francisco Opera with a new cast in the original production by director Stan Lai, with sets and costumes by Academy Award-winning production designer Tim Yip and lighting design by Gary Marder.

The opera, sung in English, was rapturously received at its premiere. Playwright David Henry Hwang worked closely with Sheng on the work’s libretto, creating a three-hour opera from a vast literary epic.

David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, Directed by Aladdin's Telly Leung, Begins June 22 at Theatre Raleigh / June 23, 2022 by David Hwang

Aladdin star Telly Leung directs Theatre Raleigh's production of Tony winner David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, which plays the TR Studio Theatre June 22-July 3.

The cast features Hansel Tan (Ping Pong) as DHH, Pascal Pastrana (Mean Girls) as Marcus, Alan Ariano (M. Butterfly) as HYH and Others, Liam Yates as Announcer and Others, Brook North as Stuart Ostro and Others, Ali Evarts as Jane and Others, and Kylie Robinson as Leah Anne Cho and Others, with standbys Tedd Szeto, Ada Chang, and Gus Allen.

Yellow Face blurs the lines between truth and fiction as Asian-American playwright Hwang leads a protest against the casting of a white performer, Jonathan Pryce, as the lead in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as “yellow face.” His position comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor for mixed-race, and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value.

Read more at Playbill

Love in the Heavens, Love on Earth / June 20, 2022 by David Hwang

Live from San Francisco, Bright Sheng’s spacey Dream of the Red Chamber

Artfully assembled for the Golden Gate demographic, Dream of the Red Chamber highlights cultural differences even as it transcends them. On the one hand, the theme, and the high-profile creatives are all Asian, from the English-language librettist David Henry Hwang to the Oscar-winning designer Tim (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) Yip. Yet the medium is Western both in form and in its expressive techniques. Call it “fusion” if you will, but isn’t this beyond?Picture, for purposes of comparison, a Moby-Dick in Kyoto, enacted in fluent Japanese by Americans trained for lives onstage at the Noh.

To adapt a doorstop novel for the lyric stage, you need a big blue pencil. Tolstoy peoples the pages of War and Peace with a cast of more than 500. Prokofiev’s operatic epic retains an unheard-of 70 named parts. Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber, drawn from a Chinese classic double the length of the Tolstoy, slashes Cao Xueqin’s slate of 400-plus characters to eight. The San Francisco premiere in 2016 took audiences by storm. Already it’s back, and this time viewers at home can catch it, too.

Best Bets: Sf Opera Offers Online Programs Featuring 'Red Chamber' Star Meigui Zhang / June 20, 2022 by David Hwang

As San Francisco Opera revives its 2016 world premiere production of Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang's "Dream of the Red Chamber" this week with a new cast in War Memorial Opera House, the company is also showcasing one of its stars, the rising soprano Meigui Zhang, in two free online videos.

Zhang, who hails from a musical family in Chengdu, China, and has the role of the lovestruck Dai Yu in the opera, is featured in the company's award-winning "In Song" streaming series on its own site, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, talking about her family background and performing three exquisite songs, accompanied by pianist Ken Noda and pipa player Zhou Yi.

Aladdin's Telly Leung to Direct David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face for Theatre Raleigh / June 20, 2022 by David Hwang

Performances of the 2007 work, inspired by the Miss Saigon casting controversy, will begin June 22 at the North Carolina venue.

Aladdin star Telly Leung is directing Theatre Raleigh's production of Tony winner David Henry Hwang'sYellow Face, which will play the TR Studio Theatre June 22-July 3.

The cast will feature Hansel Tan (Ping Pong) as DHH, Pascal Pastrana (Mean Girls) as Marcus, Alan Ariano (M. Butterfly) as HYH and Others, Liam Yates as Announcer and Others, Brook North as Stuart Ostro and Others, Ali Evarts as Jane and Others, and Kylie Robinson as Leah Anne Cho and Others, with standbys Tedd Szeto, Ada Chang, and Gus Allen.

These groundbreaking theaters shine a spotlight on Asian stories / June 14, 2022 by David Hwang

In a 1997 East West Players production, John Cho (left) and Reggie Lee perform in *FOB*, David Henry Hwang’s groundbreaking play.

From New York to Minneapolis to Los Angeles, independent stages fill in the gaps of the American experience.

Avid theatergoer Terry Hong clearly remembers traveling to New York City in 1988 to see playwright David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly, the first Asian American play to be performed on Broadway.

“It was a life-changing moment for me,” says Hong, who has written extensively about Asian American theater. “Stereotypes were being confronted, dissected, challenged, in the most clever, brilliant ways.”

Based on a true story, the play is about a French diplomat who falls in love with a Beijing Opera star only to have it end in tragedy. Audience members familiar with Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly would have found similarities at first—until Hwang’s play shatters expectations of how this story is traditionally supposed to play out. Gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and national identity are all questioned and upended.

Hwang won the Tony Award for Best Play that year. As the awards mark its 75th anniversary on June 12, he remains the first and only Asian American playwright to do so.

'Dream of the Red Chamber' returns to S.F. Opera where it was born / June 13, 2022 by David Hwang

"Dream of the Red Chamber," which went on from the San Francisco Opera to success at the 2017 Hong Kong Arts Festival and then on a tour of China, was the last major contribution of former S.F. Opera General Director David Gockley, before retiring. (Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera)
Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

As San Francisco Opera is reprising its 2016 world premiere of "Dream of the Red Chamber," June 14–July 3, Bright Sheng's musical treatment of a classic Chinese novel is produced by a pan-Pacific cast and crew — Taiwanese, Chinese, Chinese Americans, Korean, Singaporean.

Sung in English with English and Chinese supertitles, the opera, which went on from the War Memorial to success at the 2017 Hong Kong Arts Festival and then on a tour of China, was the last major contribution of former S.F. Opera General Director David Gockley, before retiring. He has commissioned 43 new operas during his long career, eight for the San Francisco company he started running in 2006.

The source is an enormous work, forerunner of endless TV series. Cao Xueqin wrote the first 80 chapters of "Dream of the Red Chamber," first published in 1790, and then collaborators added 40 more chapters later. The book, the source of films and TV series, is so important in China that the word "Redology" was coined for its study.

The most prominent Redologist was Zhou Ruchang, who spent seven decades studying the work. Initially supported by Mao Tse-tung, who claimed to have read "Red Chamber" five times. Zhou — who died in 2012 at age 94 — ended up in prison during the Cultural Revolution anyway.

The novel has been compared to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" with its tragic romance between Bao Yu (sung by Korean tenor Konu Kim) and Dai Yu (Chinese soprano Meigui Zhang), against the family scheme to have him marry the wealthy Bao Chai (Chinese mezzo Hongni Wu). Important roles are taken by Korean mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim, Taiwanese soprano Karen Chia-ling Ho; the conductor is Singaporean Darrell Ang. Stage director Stan Lai and designer Tim Yip are both Chinese Americans.

The librettist is David Henry Hwang, whose first play — at age 22 — was the 1979 "FOB," but there is nothing "fresh off the boat" about the Los Angeles-born author who lives in New York. Chinese and Asian themes dominate in his large oeuvre of drama and opera, though he readily admits that “my Chinese is fairly nonexistent.”

David Cronenberg movies ranked by how much they make us horny and disgusted at the same time / June 6, 2022 by David Hwang

If there is one piece of fleshy, throbbing connective tissue between Canadian auteur filmmaker David Cronenberg and American troubadour John Mayer, it is the sentiment that "Your Body Is a Wonderland." While Mayer meant that song to be a body-positive seductive jam, Cronenberg isn't merely aiming to titillate with his films; instead, he embraces and celebrates all aspects of the human body throughout his work. In the realm of the Cronenbergian, an open wound and a sexual orifice are one and the same.

David Cronenberg Movies Ranked By How Much They Make Us Horny And Disgusted At The Same Time

Universal

BY BILL BRIA/JUNE 2, 2022 2:00 PM EDT

If that idea sounds hot and disgusting in equal measure, then congratulations: you've come to the right ranking! It must be said from the start that this is not a ranking of Cronenberg's output from a "Worst to Best" standpoint. Instead, on the eve of the release of Cronenberg's first feature film in eight years, "Crimes of the Future," here are his films ranked in reverse order by how much they make us horny and disgusted at the same time.

Ranking David Cronenberg’s Non-Horror Movies from Worst to Best / June 6, 2022 by David Hwang

The Baron of Blood doesn't always need horror to make you squirm.

David Cronenberg is a name synonymous with body horror. From Scanners to The Fly, Cronenberg has made plenty of gross and utterly fascinating horror classics. He is a director who is constantly pushing the envelope for what is permissible onscreen. But his horror movies aren’t the only ones that are audacious or narratively challenging. Cronenberg has made several non-horror films that are equally visceral when compared to the likes of Videodrome. From thrillers to dramas to even romance, Cronenberg has proven himself as an incredibly versatile director.

At this year’s Cannes, he is making his return to the body horror genre with Crimes of the Future. Cronenberg's latest sounds like it could be one of his wildest rides yet. In a recent interview Cronenberg said about the premiere, "I do expect walkouts in Cannes, and that's a very special thing. There are some very strong scenes." Cronenberg continued, "I'm sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie" and also stated that one person who saw the film claimed to almost have a panic attack. After several decades without Cronenberg's wild body horror films, it certainly seems like Cronenberg will be back in fine form with Crimes of the Future.

But before we witness Cronenberg's return to body horror with Crimes of the Future, coming to theaters on June 3rd, here are all of his non-horror films, ranked from worst to best:

SigSpace Will Feature Samuel D. Hunter World Premiere, Plus Short Plays by David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, More / June 6, 2022 by David Hwang

Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, and Lynn Nottage

New York's Signature Theatre again joins forces with Theatre for One for a series of plays in Signature's lobby.

Signature Theatre’s SigSpace—which brings artistic programming to the Pershing Square Signature Center’s public spaces, including its lobby—will again join forces with Theatre for One to present six one-on-one, five-to-six minute theatrical experiences beginning June 9.

Déjà Vu features the world premiere of a new microplay by Samuel D. Hunter, whose Signature Premiere Residency continues in the 2022-2023 season with A Bright New Boise, plus five works from Theatre for One, many presented at Signature in 2016, including those written by José Rivera, DeLanna Studi, and former Signature resident playwrights David Henry Hwang, Regina Taylor, and Lynn Nottage.

Read more at Playbill

Theatre Raleigh Presents YELLOW FACE / June 6, 2022 by David Hwang

Don't miss Yellow Face, playing at Theatre Raleigh June 22nd-July 3rd.

Yellow Face explores the lines between truth and fiction; they blur with hilarious and moving results in David Henry Hwang’s unreliable memoir. Asian-American playwright DHH, fresh off his Tony Award win for M. Butterfly, leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as “yellowface.” His position soon comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor, Marcus G. Dahlman, for mixed-race, and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value. When DHH discovers the truth of Marcus’ ethnicity, he tries to conceal his blunder to protect his reputation as an Asian-American role model by passing the actor off as a “Siberian Jew.”

Yellow Face will be performed at the TR Studio Theatre, located at 3027 Barrow Drive.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit theatreraleigh.com

Every David Cronenberg Movie Ranked From Worst To Best / June 6, 2022 by David Hwang

Crimes of the Future is a return to the body horror genre director David Cronenberg is best known for, but how do his films rank against each other?

Crimes of the Future is the 20th feature film from director David Cronenberg, and here's how it matches up against his other movies in a ranking. The Canadian filmmaker emerged in the 1970s and has remained one of the most distinctly visionary filmmakers ever since, primarily working in the sci-fi and horror genres. Cronenberg is a pioneer of the body horror subgenre, disturbing and fascinating audiences with visceral depictions of body transformations and mutilations for nearly 50 years. Often with themes exploring the pervasive way in which science and technology impact the human experience, Cronenberg’s films have been polarizing in their grotesque depiction of these themes.

20. M. Butterfly - Adapted from a 1980s play by David Henry Hwang, which was based on a true story and loosely inspired by the Chinese legend of the Butterfly Lovers, M. Butterfly is an unusual deviation from Cronenberg’s typical themes. The tragic romantic drama follows French diplomat René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) as he becomes infatuated by male Peking opera performer Song Liling (John Lone). As lush and vibrant as the production design and cinematography is, M. Butterfly often feels lifeless.

Catch Up on Playbill's Bite-Size AAPI Theatre Facts / June 6, 2022 by David Hwang

Conrad Ricamora, Kay Trinidad, and Manu Narayan

With Conrad Ricamora, Kay Trinidad, Manu Narayan, More

Learn about AAPI legends like Baayork Lee, Alvin Ing, David Henry Hwang, and more in this social media series.

To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, Playbill's social media team put together a series of bite-sized AAPI theatre facts, highlighting the industry's Asian and Pacific Islander American movers, shakers, and groundbreakers. The short videos—presented by Asian and Pacific Islander artists including Andrea Macasaet, Anchuli Felicia King, Marc delaCruz, Preston Mui, Conrad Ricamora, Kay Trinidad, Suzy Nakamura, Jeigh Madjus, Michael Maliakel, Manu Narayan, Zachary Noah Piser, and Jodi Kimura—appeared throughout the month on Instagram and TikTok, but don't worry if you're not a social media maven; we've collected them all for you right here.

Read more at Playbill