New Works Festival serves up a feast of four unique new plays / August 14, 2023 by David Hwang

The New Works Festival launches with a special dinner and conversation featuring Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, left, and Rajiv Joseph on Aug. 11. David Henry Hwang photo courtesy Matthew Murray; Rajiv Joseph photo courtesy Rohit Chandra.

For the 2023 edition of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s annual New Works Festival, the Tony Award-winning company is cooking up generation-spanning stories and offering audiences a healthy helping of tasty tales.

“The theme is ‘Feed Your Soul,’” said TheatreWorks’ newly appointed Artistic Director and longtime Director of New Works Giovanna Sardelli. That theme refers not only to the fact that some of the plays in this year’s festival are set in the kitchen, and all four works involve food-centric moments in some way, Sardelli explained, but also because feeding the soul “is what theater does.” And the New Works Festival, she said, “feeds the soul of theater.”

Two special fundraising events will also be held in conjunction with the festival. On Aug. 11, playwrights David Henry Hwang and Rajiv Joseph (both Pulitzer Prize finalists whose work has been produced at TheatreWorks, with Sardelli serving as one of Joseph’s longtime collaborators) will be in conversation, following a dinner party including Hwang, Joseph and all the festival’s featured writers. “They’ll be sharing stories from their lives in the theater,” Sardelli said. “Nothing is better than writers asking each other questions.”

Disney Cancels Josh Gad ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ / August 14, 2023 by David Hwang

CEO Bob Iger said to be not a fan.

It’s claimed that Bob Iger and Disney have canceled the planned live-action Hunchback of Notre Dame movie from Josh Gad, which follows a string of failures from the company.

Back in 2019, it was announced that Josh Gad was developing a live-action musical adaptation of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, with Tony-winning M. Butterfly playwright David Henry Hwang writing the script, and Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz writing the music. The film was said to be pulling from the 1996 animated film from Disney.

Well, apparently, Bob Iger isn’t a big fan and has decided to cancel the Josh Gad Hunchback of Notre Dame movie.

Pinoy-themed opening night for Broadway’s first all-Filipino musical 'Here Lies Love' / July 28, 2023 by David Hwang

Among those who joined HLL stars Arielle Jacobs, Conrad Ricamora, Jose Llana and Lea Salonga, director Alex Timbers, producer Jose Antonio Vargas and creator David Byrne, were HLL producers H.E.R. and Jo Koy, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee with his children Jackson and Satchel, Korean actor-director Daniel Dae Kim of “Lost” and “Hawaii Five-O”, Fil-Am actress Tia Carrere, fashion designer Josie Cruz Natori, drag queen and reality TV star Manila Luzon, and Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (who even wore a Barong Tagalog).

6 Short Plays by Teens Selected as ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence Winners / July 28, 2023 by David Hwang

*Clockwise from top left: Niarra C. Bell, Pepper Fox, Sam Victor Lee, Valentine Wulf, Justin Cameron Washington, and HJ Kennedy.*

As part of a series of coast-to-coast readings to be held in November, the 6 winning plays will be presented at Kennedy Center’s Theater Lab.

ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence has announced the six winners of its national short-play competition for teen writers: The Smiles Behind by Niarra C. Bell (Virginia), A Call for Help by Pepper Fox (Kentucky), rOunds by HJ Kennedy (North Carolina), A Disorderly House by Sam Lee Victor (New Jersey), No Prospering Weapons by Justin Cameron Washington (Michigan), and The Matter at Hand by Valentine Wulf (Washington). Led by creator and artistic producer Michael Cotey, the ENOUGH! initiative calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will spark critical conversations and inspire meaningful action in communities across the country.

ENOUGH! received 244 submissions from 36 states this past spring when it called on teens to write 10-minute plays on gun violence. This year’s plays were selected by nationally recognized dramatists Idris Goodwin, Lauren Gunderson, Zora Howard, Samuel D. Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Octavio Solis, and Lloyd Suh. Each winning playwright receives a $500 stipend sponsored by gun violence prevention organization Change the Ref, has their play published and licensed through Playscripts, Inc., and receives from the Dramatists Guild both a membership and craft training.

ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence Names Six Winning Plays to Premiere at The Kennedy Center and Nationwide / July 28, 2023 by David Hwang

Promising young playwrights take a stand against gun violence in their compelling works.

ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence proudly announces its selection of six bold new plays about gun violence as the winners of its national short play competition: The Smiles Behind by Niarra C. Bell (Virginia), A Call for Help by Pepper Fox (Kentucky), rOunds by HJ Kennedy (North Carolina), A Disorderly House by Sam Lee Victor (New Jersey), No Prospering Weapons by Justin Cameron Washington (Michigan), and The Matter at Hand by Valentine Wulf (Washington). Led by its creator and Joaquin Oliver Artistic Producer, Michael Cotey, the ENOUGH! initiative calls on teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre that will spark critical conversations and inspire meaningful action in communities across the country.

New Stages Theatre Announces Eight Contemporary Professional Shows for the 2023-2024 Season / June 30, 2023 by David Hwang

The full season line-up includes:

October: THIS IS HOW WE GOT HERE by Keith Barker

A staged reading at Market Hall. A beautiful drama by Métis playwright Keith Barker about two families in north Ontario grieving a tragic loss, when they are surprised by a mysterious visitor.

June: YELLOW FACE by David Henry Hwang.

A staged reading at Market Hall. A satirical play about the once-common practice of casting White actors to play Asian roles on stage and screen. At once wickedly funny & vital viewing.

After two decades, arts center near One World Trade announces its premiere season / June 17, 2023 by David Hwang

Nearly two decades after a master plan for redeveloping the former site of the World Trade Center was drafted, a cultural facility long promised as part of that plan is set to open in September. The Perelman Performing Arts Center, directed by a blue-chip team of entrepreneurs, philanthropists, organizers and curators, announced details of its inaugural season on Wednesday morning.

The facility, located on the corner of Fulton and Greenwich streets, is named for one of its leading benefactors, banker and investor Ronald O. Perelman. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leading force behind the Hudson Yards arts and culture facility The Shed, is the chairman of the board for the new center. The branding of the facility is now emphasizing PAC NYC — Performing Arts Center New York City — as its name.

“An American Soldier”

Composer Huang Ruo, playwright David Henry Hwang and director Chay Yew fashion a new opera from the true story of Danny Chen, a U.S. Army soldier who served in Afghanistan, and whose suicide prompted a military investigation.

World Trade Center Arts Space to Open With Music, Theater and Dance / June 17, 2023 by David Hwang

A one-man Laurence Fishburne show, a Bill T. Jones premiere and a new take on “Cats” will be among the offerings at the new Perelman Performing Arts Center.

As the marble-clad, cube-like Perelman Performing Arts Center has taken shape at the World Trade Center site, questions have swirled about what will actually happen inside.

Some answers came on Wednesday, when the center announced a first year of programming that will feature original work, including the premiere of an autobiographical play written by and starring the actor Laurence Fishburne called “Like They Do in the Movies,” as well as partnerships, including with the Tribeca Festival.

Bill Rauch, the center’s artistic director, said the roster was deliberately eclectic.

“We much want to give many different audiences many different reasons to come into our building,” he said in a telephone interview, adding that PAC NYC — as the center is being called — is invested in “creating connections.”

The year will feature dance, opera, music and theater. Some highlights include:

The New York Premiere of “An American Soldier,” an opera by the composer Huang Ruo and the playwright David Henry Hwang. The opera, which will be staged in May, tells the true story of Danny Chen, a New Yorker who enlisted in the Army and was subjected to hazing and racist taunts in Afghanistan, and who killed himself at 19.

Every David Cronenberg movie, ranked / June 17, 2023 by David Hwang

Ranking every single David Cronenberg movie is no easy feat, but we did it anyway. With the release of the Dead Ringers remake (which is quite good, by the way), it only made sense to write up all 22 of Cronenberg's directorial features looking at what makes them great, unique, or just worth a watch.

Whether you only know him for gross-out body horror like The Fly or modern dramas like A Dangerous Method, his filmography truly has something for everyone – even the most serious of cinephiles. Scroll on to read through our ranking and see where your favorite movie falls on the list.

M Butterfly (1993)

As beautiful as it is bleak, M. Butterfly is a film adaptation of the stage play of the same name penned by David Henry Hwang (who also wrote the screenplay). A bit out of an outlier in Cronenberg's filmography, the story is based on the real-life affair between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu.

The stage play explores nonconforming gender identities, espionage, the artistry of the Peking opera, and the political climate of 1960s Bejing at length. These elements are mostly absent here in Cronenberg's adaptation – which puts the focus solely on Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) and Song's (John Lone) torrid love affair. Instead of including the rich color of the Peking opera, Cronenberg opts for his usual muted color palette which, when paired with lackluster dialogue and undeveloped plot points, adds to the film's overall bleakness.

Best Bets: San Francisco Playhouse Presents David Henry Hwang's 'Chinglish' / June 11, 2023 by David Hwang

They were the darlings of social media some years back: those public signs in China that included awkward English translations ("Beware of Missing Foot," "Slip and Fall Carefully!"). Their fascination has faded with time (and perhaps with the realization that they were only funny to Americans who expect every other country to speak English), but one lasting remnant of value is David Henry Hwang's play "Chinglish," which is enjoying a successful and well-received run at San Francisco Playhouse. The play centers on an American businessman who heads to China hoping to secure lucrative contacts for his family sign company. Of course, the prospective clients he meets don't always understand him very well, and what unspools is an insightful and comedic clash of idioms, expectations and motivations. But don't take our translation, go see for yourself. SF Playhouse's production, directed by the talented Jeffrey Lo, runs through June 10 at 450 Post St.; performances are 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15-$100; go to www.sfplayhouse.org.

How America’s Playwrights Saved the Tony Awards / June 11, 2023 by David Hwang

Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer-winning playwright of “Angels in America,” and Lisa Kron, the Tony-winning librettist and lyricist of “Fun Home,” are among many Broadway artists who also work in film and television and have joined picketing screenwriters in New York. Credit...Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

The screenwriters’ strike threatened next month’s broadcast, a key marketing moment for the fragile theater industry. That’s when leading dramatists sprang into action.

Martyna Majok, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, was revising her musical adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” after a long day in a developmental workshop when she heard the news: The union representing striking screenwriters was not going to grant a waiver for the Tony Awards, imperiling this year’s telecast.

So at three in the morning, she set aside her script to join a group of playwrights frantically writing emails and making phone calls to leaders of the Writers Guild of America, urging the union not to make the pandemic-hobbled theater industry collateral damage in a Hollywood dispute. “I had to try,” she said.

Surprising even themselves, the army of artists succeeded. The screenwriters’ union agreed to a compromise: it said it would not picket the ceremony as long as the show does not rely on a written script.

Tony Kushner and a number of acclaimed dramatists — including David Henry Hwang and Jeremy O. Harris — who spent a weekend phoning and emailing union leaders. At least a half-dozen Pulitzer winners joined the cause, including Lynn Nottage (“Sweat” and “Ruined”), Quiara Alegría Hudes (“Water by the Spoonful”), David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole”), Donald Margulies (“Dinner with Friends”) and Majok (“Cost of Living”).

Rare music composition performed under the Spruce Goose / June 11, 2023 by David Hwang

A piece of music by the composer Philip Glass will soon be performed under the tail of Oregon’s iconic Spruce Goose airplane. The piece, “1,000 Airplanes on the Roof,” has rarely been performed in full. It features numerous wind instruments, synthesizers, a vocalist and an actor performing scenes. Sarah Tiedemann, artistic director of Third Angle New Music, and actor Ithica Tell, join us to describe the performance in more detail and share its history.

The piece will be performed on May 20th and 21st at 8 p.m.

Dave Miller : From the Gert Boyle Studio OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. You can watch a performance this weekend of a piece by the composer Philip Glass while sitting under the tail of Oregon’s iconic Spruce Goose airplane. The piece is called “1,000 Airplanes on the Roof,” and according to the organizers of the concert, the one act sci-fi melodrama has rarely been performed in full. Sarah Tiedemann is the Artistic Director of Third Angle New Music. She joins us now, along with Ithica Tell, a long time Portland actor who plays the only role in this production. Welcome to you both.

Sarah Tiedemann: Thank you.

Ithica Tell: Glad to be here.

Miller: Sarah, how did it come to be that you’re doing a concert under a huge airplane?

Tiedemann: Well, every year I spend some time on the internet as I’m doing our programming and for some reason, I was drawn to look at the Evergreen Museum’s website. I have never been there before, at that point. I had never seen the Spruce Goose. I didn’t know very much about the Spruce Goose, but I just felt kind of compelled. And then saw that it was the 75th anniversary of the one flight that it had made and the project kind of spiraled from there.

Weekend Picks: Art-A-Whirl, puppets, and an opera that goes to hell and back / June 11, 2023 by David Hwang

Plus: AAPI Generations Conference; Tammy Ortegon’s 30years Reflect Back/30years Inspired Forward exhibit.

AAPI CONFERENCE

David Henry Hwang is one of the most important playwrights writing in America today, with works that have led dialogue around anti-Asian portrayal, often taking canonical operas and musicals and deconstructing them with a new message. In “M. Butterfly,” he took on Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly,” with “Soft Power,” he re-invented “The King and I,” and he famously wrote a new book for the 1961 musical “Flower Drum Song,” significantly re-working the plot. He also wrote the book for “Aida,” and explored his own experiences writing a play about casting in “Miss Saigon” in “Yellow Face.”

Voices across time: Theater Mu ignites intergenerational conversation / June 11, 2023 by David Hwang

*The cast of Theater Mu's and Jungle Theater's 2022 production of "Cambodian Rock Band." Founded in 1992, Theater Mu is a national hub for Asian American theater.*
*Courtesy of Rich Ryan*

Twin Cities-based theater company Theater Mu is playing host to a national theater conference.

The AAPI Generations Conference gathers theater makers to discuss, reminisce and envision the past, present and future of Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) theater in America.

“[The conference] is an event we're doing to celebrate our 30th anniversary,” Lily Tung Crystal, Theater Mu’s current artistic director, told MPR News.

While the focus will be on Asian American theater, all are invited and encouraged to attend.

Founded in 1992, Theater Mu has been a national hub for Asian American theater and has been dedicated to platforming AAPI artists.

While the conference serves as a reunion of sorts for some of the early change makers in AAPI American theater — with guests like Shiomi and Tony winner David Henry Hwang — it is also an opportunity for intergenerational conversation to take place about where Asian American theater is now.

Tony Awards Will Give Their Regards to Broadway Amid Strike / June 11, 2023 by David Hwang

At the 2023 Tony Awards, the drama is offstage. The awards show was almost canceled amid the WGA strike, but on May 15, the guild granted a waiver allowing Broadway’s big show to go on (the picket line would have required that writers not work if an unsanctioned show were aired). That means shows like Kimberly Akimbo, Sweeney Todd, Some Like It Hot, and all the other nomineesslated to perform will still get their big night June 11. So the only question left, as Rachel Bloom well knows, is can we watch?did the Tonys get back on?

Along with agreeing to make those changes, the main reason the Tonys are back on is because the playwrights (many of whom are in the WGA), advocated for the Tonys within their writing communities, according to the Times. Well-known playwrights like Tony Kushner, Jeremy O. Harris, David Henry Hwang, Lynn Nottage, and Martyna Majok, among many others, all advocated, getting the union to let the Tonys air without picketing owing to the impact the awards have on the theater community. Maybe now the Tonys will deign to give an award for playwriting.

Dylan J. Locke: From the state capital to L.A. fame / May 21, 2023 by David Hwang

When your father’s the state governor, then a member of Obama’s cabinet, then the ambassador to China—and when your mother’s a Miss Asian America, then a television reporter—you could be forgiven for thinking your family isn’t quite like anybody else’s.

But Dylan J. Locke, second child and only son of Gary and Mona Locke, says the ordinariness of family life, and family love, stick with him the most.

“My earliest memories growing up are almost entirely of family,” reflected the stage and screen actor, who’s opening in David Henry Hwang’s play “The Dance and the Railroad” in Pasadena on May 19.

“It seems like every Asian actor in L.A. has their roots tracing back to EWP at one point or another. So I’d say the biggest difference between Seattle and L.A. is the size of the L.A. market. And of course, the prevalence of the film industry!”

“The Dance and the Railroad” is David Henry Hwang’s second play, originally produced in New York City. Locke describes it as “Revolving around two Chinese immigrant railroad workers during the 1890s. It deals with the poignant subjects of loss, survival, camaraderie, and perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds.

“I play Ma, the bright-eyed newcomer to America. He’s a naive counterpart to the railroad veteran Lone, played by the incredibly talented Hao Feng.”

Weekend Picks: AAPI Generations Conference / May 21, 2023 by David Hwang

AAPI Conference

This week, Hwang will be here in Minneapolis for the AAPI Generations Conference, hosted by Theater Mu. He’ll be part of a panel with actor Amy Hill, playwright Philip Kan Gotanda, and Mu’s co-founder Rick Shiomi, moderated by Josephine Lee.

Alan Menken Gives Update on Live-Action ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ Movie / May 21, 2023 by David Hwang

Composer Alan Menken recently spoke with ComicBook.com and offered an update on the live-action remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

He stated, “It’s a tough one, because the Hunchback movie, Hunchback story involves a lot of real, real issues that are important issues and should be explored to be discussed. And there has to be an agreement about how we deal with those issues. You know, do we do a Hunchback without ‘Hellfire?’ I don’t think so … So it sits in this limbo right now.”

May brings fresh perspectives to San Francisco stages / May 10, 2023 by David Hwang

Chinglish

This comedy of cultural and linguistic conflicts by award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (“M. Butterfly” and others) opened on Broadway in 2011; Berkeley Rep staged the West Coast premiere in 2012. The play was updated in 2015 to represent changing U.S. relations with China, as San Francisco Playhouse notes in the advance publicity for its upcoming production.

Chinglish itself is, of course, that familiar and often hilarious broken English that shows up most often in various instruction manuals of products imported from China with awkward direct translations from the Chinese language. In Hwang’s play, an American businessman (played here by Michael Barrett Austin) arrives in China hoping to work out a good deal for his company, but confounding differences — everything from customs to language — interfere. Hwang has said that he thought of writing the play when he toured an arts center in China — impressive except for the absurdly translated signs in English.

San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St., SF. May 4-June 10. Tickets: $15-$100. (415) 677-9596,

sfplayhouse.org

See Production Photos of Golijov's Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar) at Detroit Opera / April 22, 2023 by David Hwang

A new production of Osvaldo Golijov's opera Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar), with a libretto by David Henry Hwang, opened April 8 at Detroit Opera. The production, directed by Deborah Colker, is a co-production of Detroit Opera, Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera, and is expected to come to the Met in the 2024-25 season.

See more at Playbill