David Henry Hwang
Encyclopedia
David Henry Hwang is an American
playwright
who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American
dramatist in the U.S.
He was born in Los Angeles
, California
and was educated at the Yale School of Drama
and Stanford University
. His first play was produced at the Okada House dormitory at Stanford and he briefly studied playwriting with Sam Shepard
and María Irene Fornés
.
and Asian American
in the modern day world. His first play, the Obie Award
-winning FOB
, depicts the contrasts and conflicts between established Asian Americans and "Fresh Off the Boat
" newcomer immigrants. The play was developed by the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
and premiered in 1980 Off-Broadway
at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Papp went on to produce four more of Hwang's plays, including the Pulitzer Prize
-nominated drama The Dance and the Railroad
, which tells the story of a former Chinese opera
star working as a coolie
laborer in the nineteenth century, and Family Devotions
, a darkly comic take on the effects of Western religion on a Chinese family. Those three plays added up to a "Trilogy of Chinese America" as the author described.
, the omnibus title to two Hwang one-act plays set in Japan
. At this time, Hwang started to work on projects for the small screen. A television movie, Blind Alleys
, written by Hwang and Frederic Kimball and starring Pat Morita
and Cloris Leachman
, was produced.
His next play, Rich Relations
, was his first to feature non-Asian characters. It premiered at the Second Stage Theatre
in New York and, though not a success, did prepare him for his work on his best-known play, M. Butterfly
, for which he won a Tony Award
, the Drama Desk Award
, the John Gassner Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award
for Best Play. It was also his second play to be a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play is a deconstruction of Giacomo Puccini
's opera Madama Butterfly
. The play is also loosely based on news reports of the relationship between a French diplomat, Bernard Boursicot
, and Shi Pei Pu
, a male Chinese opera singer who purportedly convinced Boursicot that he was a woman throughout their twenty-year relationship. The play premiered on Broadway
in 1988 and made Hwang the first Asian American to win the Tony Award for Best Play
.
, film
, and the musical theatre
. Hwang became a frequent collaborator as a librettist with the world-renowned composer Philip Glass
.
Additionally, one of M. Butterflys Broadway producers, David Geffen
, spear-headed a film version
of the play, which was directed by David Cronenberg
. Hwang also wrote an original script, Golden Gate
, which was produced by American Playhouse
. Hwang wrote an early draft of a screenplay based upon A. S. Byatt
's Booker Prize-winning novel Possession
, which was originally scheduled for director Sydney Pollack
. Years later, director/playwright Neil LaBute
and Laura Jones
would collaborate on the script for a 2002 film.
Still, throughout the 1990s, Hwang continued to write for the stage, including short plays for the famed Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville
and Golden Child
, which received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory
in 1996. Golden Child
later became his second Broadway venture and won the 1997 Obie Award for its Off-Broadway production and gave Hwang his second Tony nomination.
(based upon the opera by Giuseppe Verdi
), which, in an earlier format, had failed in regional theatre tryouts. Hwang and Falls re-wrote a significant portion of the book (by Linda Woolverton
) and Aida (with music and lyrics by Elton John
and Tim Rice
) opened in 2000 to great box office business.
His next project was a radical revision of Richard Rodgers
, Oscar Hammerstein, II, and Joseph Fields
' musical Flower Drum Song
. Although successful when introduced in the 1950s and early 1960s, it had become dated after the Civil Rights Movement
redefined the viability of stereotypical portrayals of Asian American communities. Though it had never been a full critical success relative to other Rodgers and Hammerstein productions such as South Pacific
and The King and I
, it inspired another generation of Asian Americans to re-imagine the musical. Adapted from the novel The Flower Drum Song by C. Y. Lee
, it tells the story of a culture clash with a Chinese family living in San Francisco. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization allowed Hwang to significantly rework the plot, while retaining character names and songs. His version —both an homage to the original and a modern re-thinking— won him his third Tony nomination. Though Flower Drum Song is often called the first musical with an all-Asian cast, it was the 2002 revival of the play which was finally produced with an all-Asian cast of actor-singers. The original production had cast many non-Asians in leading roles, including Caucasians and an African-American (Juanita Hall
). The revival went on to a national tour.
centers on his one failed Broadway experiment Face Value
, which closed in previews on Broadway back in the early 1990s and was written in response to a controversy about the casting of Jonathan Pryce
in a Eurasian role in Miss Saigon
. Face Value
, which also included music and lyrics for a musical-within-a-play by Hwang, lost millions of dollars and was a stumbling block in the careers of Hwang and producer Stuart Ostrow
.
Hwang decided to turn the experience into a semi-autobiographical play which pits him as the main character in a media farce about mistaken racial identity, which was (oddly enough) one of the main plots of Face Value
.
Yellow Face
premiered in Los Angeles in 2007 at the Mark Taper Forum
as a co-production with East West Players
and then moved Off-Broadway to the Joseph Papp Public Theater, which was so important in Hwang's earlier work. There, it enjoyed an extended run, won Hwang his third Obie Award in Playwriting, and made him a third-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
. Hwang speaks about Yellow Face
in this event at Colgate University
http://onlinecourses.colgate.edu/livingwriters. Hwang also wrote a new short play, The Great Helmsman
for their night of plays Ten.
's Alice in Wonderland
with music (and part of the libretto) by the Korean composer Unsuk Chin
, which received its world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera
in 2007 and was released on DVD in 2008. Hwang wrote the libretto
to Howard Shore
's opera
The Fly
, based on David Cronenberg
's 1986 film of the same name
; the opera premiered on July 2, 2008 at the Théâtre du Châtelet
in Paris, France with Cronenberg as director and Plácido Domingo
conducting. Hwang was most recently represented on Broadway as the librettist for Tarzan
, a musical based on a film by Walt Disney Pictures.
Hwang also collaborated on the multi-media event Icarus at the Edge of Time, adapted from Brian Greene
's novel
. It also featured music by Philip Glass
and a film by "Al and Al." The piece premiered as part of the World Science Festival
. His most recent short play, A Very DNA Reunion
was written for the evening of plays The DNA Trail, which was conceived by Jamil Khoury and premiered at the historic Chicago Temple Building
.
After its major success in Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Chinglish, written by David Henry Hwang, quickly made its way to Broadway in October 2011. Chinglish was largely inspired by his frequent visits to China and his observations of interactions between Chinese and American people.
and others— as well two plays—an original, Chinglish (due to open on Broadway October 27, 2011, following a successful run in Chicago), and a play on the memoirs of Chinese-British actress Tsai Chin
entitled Daughter of Shanghai. In an interview at the 2010 San Diego Asian Film Festival, Hwang mentioned that he was interested in creating an Asian American television series.
, The Dance and the Railroad
, Family Devotions
, The House of Sleeping Beauties
(adapted from Yasunari Kawabata
's novella House of the Sleeping Beauties
), The Sound of a Voice
, As the Crow Flies
, Rich Relations
, M. Butterfly
, Bondage
, Face Value
, Trying to Find Chinatown
, Bang Kok
, Golden Child
, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen
's Peer Gynt
(co-written with Stephan Muller), the Humana Festival T(ext) Shirt play Merchandising
, Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet
, the children's play Tibet Through the Red Box
(based upon Peter Sis
' book), The Great Helmsman
, Yellow Face
, and A Very DNA Reunion
.
His music-theatre work includes the texts for Philip Glass
' 1000 Airplanes on the Roof
, The Voyage
, and The Sound of a Voice
, the book for Elton John
and Tim Rice
's Aida
(co-written by Linda Woolverton
and Robert Falls), the Walt Disney Company's theatrical version of Edgar Rice Burroughs
' Tarzan
(with music and lyrics by Phil Collins
), the libretti for Bright Sheng
's The Silver River
, Osvaldo Golijov
's Ainadamar
, Unsuk Chin
's Alice in Wonderland
(libretto co-written by Chin), and Howard Shore
's The Fly
as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein
's Flower Drum Song
.
He has also written a number of screenplays, including David Cronenberg
's adaptation of M. Butterfly
, John Madden
's Golden Gate
, and Neil LaBute
's Possession (co-written with Laura Jones
and LaBute, adapted from the novel by A. S. Byatt
). He also wrote the teleplays for Blind Alleys
(with Frederic Kimball) and the NBC
mini-series The Monkey King (more commonly known as The Lost Empire), directed by Peter MacDonald
. Hwang served as an assistant on the documentary Forbidden City, U. S. A. Along with Tristine Rainer, Hwang contributed story material to the television film Forbidden Nights, which was written by Rainer and based upon Judith Shapiro
's article "The Rocky Course of Love in China." He served as a script advisor for the film Picture Bride
. In 2003, Susan Hoffman directed a film adaptation of The Sound of a Voice entitled Sound of a Voice
starring Lane Nishikawa
.
As another extension of his interests, Hwang penned the texts for three dance pieces: Ruby Shang's Yellow Punk Dolls (live) and Dances in Exile (presented on Alive from Off Center
; starring B. D. Wong and directed by Howard Silver) as well as Maureen Fleming's After Eros http://searslist.com/currentbio/cover_bios/cover_bio_03_10.htm (with music by Philip Glass
). With Brian Greene
, he adapted the novel Icarus at the Edge of Time for composer Glass and filmmakers "Al and Al." He also co-wrote the Prince
song "Solo" for his album Come
.
In 1999, Hwang starred in a short film by Greg Pak
called Asian Pride Porn, which combined humor and serious social commentary to parody the Asian fetish
and the prevalence of Asian fetish pornography. As himself, he has appeared in the documentary films Hollywood Chinese
, Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde, Literary Visions, The Chinese Americans, and Maxine Hong Kingston: Talking Stories. Hwang often contributes forewords and introductions to many books, including Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Asian American Drama: 9 Plays from the Multiethnic Landscape, Robot Stories and Other Screenplays by Greg Pak, a reprint of C. Y. Lee
's The Flower Drum Song, and Karin Aguilar-San Juan's The State of Asian America: Activisim and Resistance in the 1990s. Fantasy author Kathryn Wesley wrote a novelization of Hwang's teleplay for The Lost Empire under the title The Monkey King.
, the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the New York State Council on the Arts
, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. He has been honored with awards from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
, the Association for Asian Pacific American Artists, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas
, the East West Players
, the Organization of Chinese Americans
, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, the Center for Migration Studies, the Asian American Resource Workshop, the China Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 1998, the nation's oldest Asian American theatre
company, the East West Players, christened its new mainstage The David Henry Hwang Theatre. Hwang was featured in an autobiographical series by Boise State University
with a summary of his early work, as part of the Western Writers Series, written by Douglas Street.
Mr. Hwang sits on the boards of the Dramatists Guild, Young Playwrights Inc., and the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. He conducts interviews on arts-related topics for the national PBS
cable television show Asian America. From 1994–2001, he served by appointment of President Bill Clinton
on the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
David Henry Hwang holds honorary degrees from Columbia College Chicago
and The American Conservatory Theatre. He lives in New York City
with his wife, actress Kathryn Layng
, and their children, Noah David and Eva Veanne.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
dramatist in the U.S.
He was born in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and was educated at the Yale School of Drama
Yale School of Drama
The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...
and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. His first play was produced at the Okada House dormitory at Stanford and he briefly studied playwriting with Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
and María Irene Fornés
María Irene Fornés
María Irene Fornés is a Cuban-American avant garde playwright and director who is associated with the establishment of the Off-off-Broadway movement in the 1960s. Fornes themes focused on poverty and feminism. In 1965, she won her first Obie Award for Promenade and her second for The Successful...
.
Isolationalist-Nationalist Phase/Trilogy of Chinese America
Hwang's early plays concerned the role of the Chinese AmericanChinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
and Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
in the modern day world. His first play, the Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
-winning FOB
FOB (play)
FOB is a 1980 Obie Award-winning play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's first play, it depicts the contrasts and conflicts between established Asian Americans and "fresh off the boat" newcomer immigrants...
, depicts the contrasts and conflicts between established Asian Americans and "Fresh Off the Boat
Fresh off the boat
The phrases Fresh off the boat , Off the boat , or just simply Boat; are terminologies used to describe immigrants that have arrived from a foreign nation and have not yet assimilated into the host nation's culture, language, and behavior. Within some ethnic Asian circles in the United States, the...
" newcomer immigrants. The play was developed by the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
The Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut is a 501 not-for-profit theater company founded in 1964 by George C. White. The O'Neill is the recipient of the . The O'Neill is home to the National Theater Institute , and several major theater conferences including the...
and premiered in 1980 Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Papp went on to produce four more of Hwang's plays, including the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
-nominated drama The Dance and the Railroad
The Dance and the Railroad
The Dance and the Railroad is a 1981 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's second play, it depicts a strike in a coolie railroad labor camp in the mid-nineteenth century. The play premiered as part of a commission by the New Federal Theatre in 1981. It had its professional debut on...
, which tells the story of a former Chinese opera
Chinese opera
Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE...
star working as a coolie
Coolie
Historically, a coolie was a manual labourer or slave from Asia, particularly China, India, and the Phillipines during the 19th century and early 20th century...
laborer in the nineteenth century, and Family Devotions
Family Devotions
Family Devotions is a 1981 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's third play, it depicts the clash of West and East within three generations of an Americanized Chinese family living in a Los Angeles suburb. The play premiered on October 18, 1981 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp...
, a darkly comic take on the effects of Western religion on a Chinese family. Those three plays added up to a "Trilogy of Chinese America" as the author described.
Branching Out/National Success
After this, Papp also produced the show Sound and BeautySound and Beauty
Sound and Beauty is the omnibus title of two plays by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's fourth play, The House of Sleeping Beauties, was adapted from Yasunari Kawabata's novella House of the Sleeping Beauties. It tells the story of the narrator of that novella investigating the brothel...
, the omnibus title to two Hwang one-act plays set in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. At this time, Hwang started to work on projects for the small screen. A television movie, Blind Alleys
Blind Alleys
Blind Alleys was a 1985 television special produced by Metromedia. It is the story of two people once linked by an interracial marriage setting up for their daughter's wedding...
, written by Hwang and Frederic Kimball and starring Pat Morita
Pat Morita
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...
and Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
, was produced.
His next play, Rich Relations
Rich Relations
Rich Relations is a 1986 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's first play with all non-Asian characters, it depicts the rich WASP Orr family and the damage within from parent to child, with many religious overtones. The play premiered at the McGinn-Cazale Theatre on April 21, 1986...
, was his first to feature non-Asian characters. It premiered at the Second Stage Theatre
Second Stage Theatre
Second Stage Theatre is an award-winning contemporary Off-Broadway theater company.-Mission:The theatre's mission is to give new life to contemporary American plays and to produce the world premiers of new plays by both established and emerging playwrights...
in New York and, though not a success, did prepare him for his work on his best-known play, M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer....
, for which he won a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
, the Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
, the John Gassner Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
for Best Play. It was also his second play to be a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play is a deconstruction of Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's opera Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
. The play is also loosely based on news reports of the relationship between a French diplomat, Bernard Boursicot
Bernard Boursicot
Bernard Boursicot is a French diplomat who was caught in a honeypot trap , by Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer who performed female roles, whom Boursicot believed to be female...
, and Shi Pei Pu
Shi Pei Pu
Shi Pei Pu was a Chinese opera singer from Beijing. He became a spy who obtained secrets during a 20-year long sexual affair in which he convinced an employee in the French Embassy that he was a woman, later producing a child that he insisted had been born through their relations. The story made...
, a male Chinese opera singer who purportedly convinced Boursicot that he was a woman throughout their twenty-year relationship. The play premiered on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1988 and made Hwang the first Asian American to win the Tony Award for Best Play
Tony Award for Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...
.
Work Post-Butterfly
The success of M. Butterfly prompted Hwang's interests in many other different directions, including work for operaOpera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and the musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. Hwang became a frequent collaborator as a librettist with the world-renowned composer Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
.
Additionally, one of M. Butterflys Broadway producers, David Geffen
David Geffen
David Geffen is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990...
, spear-headed a film version
M. Butterfly (film)
M. Butterfly is a 1993 romantic drama film directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay was written by David Henry Hwang based on his play of the same name...
of the play, which was directed by David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
. Hwang also wrote an original script, Golden Gate
Golden Gate (film)
Golden Gate is a 1994 film produced by American Playhouse. It is the story of a 1950s G-Man who gets involved with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Communist prosecutions, which leads him to become involved with a young Chinese-American woman , whose father he helped to put in prison. The...
, which was produced by American Playhouse
American Playhouse
American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.It premiered on January 12, 1982 with The Shady Hill Kidnapping, written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart...
. Hwang wrote an early draft of a screenplay based upon A. S. Byatt
A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
's Booker Prize-winning novel Possession
Possession: A Romance
Possession: A Romance is a 1990 bestselling novel by British writer A. S. Byatt. It is a winner of the Man Booker Prize.Part historical as well as contemporary fiction, the title Possession refers to issues of ownership and independence between lovers, the practice of collecting historically...
, which was originally scheduled for director Sydney Pollack
Sydney Pollack
Sydney Irwin Pollack was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City, where he later taught acting...
. Years later, director/playwright Neil LaBute
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.-Early life:LaBute was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of French Canadian, English and Irish ancestry, and was raised in Spokane,...
and Laura Jones
Laura Jones (screenwriter)
Laura Jones in Australia is a screenwriter.Jones started her career writing teleplays for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her first feature film credit was the original screenplay for High Tide , directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Judy Davis...
would collaborate on the script for a 2002 film.
Still, throughout the 1990s, Hwang continued to write for the stage, including short plays for the famed Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville
Actors Theatre of Louisville is a performing arts theater located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1964 by Louisville native Ewel Cornett, local producer Richard Block and actor Ken Jenkins of Scrubs fame, and was designated the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974. It is run as a...
and Golden Child
Golden Child (play)
Golden Child is an Obie Award-winning play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's second Broadway play, it depicts a nineteenth century Chinese family being faced with Westernization. The play was developed Off-Broadway and premiered there on November 19, 1996 at the Joseph Papp Public...
, which received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory
South Coast Repertory is a professional theatre company located in Costa Mesa, California.Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely...
in 1996. Golden Child
Golden Child (play)
Golden Child is an Obie Award-winning play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's second Broadway play, it depicts a nineteenth century Chinese family being faced with Westernization. The play was developed Off-Broadway and premiered there on November 19, 1996 at the Joseph Papp Public...
later became his second Broadway venture and won the 1997 Obie Award for its Off-Broadway production and gave Hwang his second Tony nomination.
Return to Broadway with Disney and Rodgers & Hammerstein
In the new millennium, Hwang had two Broadway successes back-to-back. He was asked by director Robert Falls to help co-write the book for the musical AidaAida (musical)
Aida is a musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang, and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical....
(based upon the opera by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
), which, in an earlier format, had failed in regional theatre tryouts. Hwang and Falls re-wrote a significant portion of the book (by Linda Woolverton
Linda Woolverton
Linda Woolverton is an American writer who wrote the screenplay for Disney's animated feature film Beauty and the Beast and co-wrote the screenplay for the The Lion King. Woolverton then went on to write the Broadway musical version of Beauty and the Beast and assisted in adapting The Lion King to...
) and Aida (with music and lyrics by Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
) opened in 2000 to great box office business.
His next project was a radical revision of Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...
, Oscar Hammerstein, II, and Joseph Fields
Joseph Fields
Joseph Albert Fields was an American playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film producer.-Life and career:Fields was born in New York City, the son of vaudevillean Lew Fields...
' musical Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
. Although successful when introduced in the 1950s and early 1960s, it had become dated after the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
redefined the viability of stereotypical portrayals of Asian American communities. Though it had never been a full critical success relative to other Rodgers and Hammerstein productions such as South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
and The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
, it inspired another generation of Asian Americans to re-imagine the musical. Adapted from the novel The Flower Drum Song by C. Y. Lee
C. Y. Lee (author)
Chin Yang Lee is a Chinese American author best known for his 1957 novel The Flower Drum Song, which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song and writer for his 2006 film "10,000 Apologies" with May Wang.-Biography:...
, it tells the story of a culture clash with a Chinese family living in San Francisco. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization allowed Hwang to significantly rework the plot, while retaining character names and songs. His version —both an homage to the original and a modern re-thinking— won him his third Tony nomination. Though Flower Drum Song is often called the first musical with an all-Asian cast, it was the 2002 revival of the play which was finally produced with an all-Asian cast of actor-singers. The original production had cast many non-Asians in leading roles, including Caucasians and an African-American (Juanita Hall
Juanita Hall
Juanita Hall was an American musical theatre and film actress. She is remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals South Pacific as Bloody Mary and Flower Drum Song as Auntie Liang.-Biography:Born in Keyport, New Jersey, Hall received...
). The revival went on to a national tour.
Back to the Public
Hwang's 2007 play Yellow FaceYellow Face
Yellow Face is a play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist. It premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in association with East West Players and had its Off-Broadway premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theater...
centers on his one failed Broadway experiment Face Value
Face Value (play)
Face Value was a 1993 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It was to be the second Broadway production of the playwright's work, but it closed in previews on March 14, 1993. The production was scheduled to open at the Cort Theatre. It was directed by Jerry Zaks, with B. D...
, which closed in previews on Broadway back in the early 1990s and was written in response to a controversy about the casting of Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
in a Eurasian role in Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
. Face Value
Face Value (play)
Face Value was a 1993 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It was to be the second Broadway production of the playwright's work, but it closed in previews on March 14, 1993. The production was scheduled to open at the Cort Theatre. It was directed by Jerry Zaks, with B. D...
, which also included music and lyrics for a musical-within-a-play by Hwang, lost millions of dollars and was a stumbling block in the careers of Hwang and producer Stuart Ostrow
Stuart Ostrow
Stuart Ostrow is an American theatrical producer and director, professor, and author.Born in New York City, Ostrow began his career as an apprentice of Frank Loesser and eventually became Vice-President and General Manager of Frank Music Corporation and Frank Productions, Incorporated, the...
.
Hwang decided to turn the experience into a semi-autobiographical play which pits him as the main character in a media farce about mistaken racial identity, which was (oddly enough) one of the main plots of Face Value
Face Value (play)
Face Value was a 1993 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It was to be the second Broadway production of the playwright's work, but it closed in previews on March 14, 1993. The production was scheduled to open at the Cort Theatre. It was directed by Jerry Zaks, with B. D...
.
Yellow Face
Yellow Face
Yellow Face is a play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist. It premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in association with East West Players and had its Off-Broadway premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theater...
premiered in Los Angeles in 2007 at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
as a co-production with East West Players
East West Players
East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...
and then moved Off-Broadway to the Joseph Papp Public Theater, which was so important in Hwang's earlier work. There, it enjoyed an extended run, won Hwang his third Obie Award in Playwriting, and made him a third-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
. Hwang speaks about Yellow Face
Yellow Face
Yellow Face is a play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist. It premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in association with East West Players and had its Off-Broadway premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theater...
in this event at Colgate University
Colgate University
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...
http://onlinecourses.colgate.edu/livingwriters. Hwang also wrote a new short play, The Great Helmsman
The Great Helmsman (play)
The Great Helmsman is a 2007 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It deals with two women who are debating who will be chosen for a night with Chairman Mao Zedong. The play premiered as part of the production Ten, a night of short plays. It premiered April 30, 2007 at the Joseph Papp...
for their night of plays Ten.
Recent Work
Hwang has continued to work steadily in the world of opera and musical theatre and has written for children's theatre as well. Hwang co-wrote the English language libretto for an operatic adaptation of Lewis CarrollLewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (opera)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2007 operatic adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. It is the first opera of Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who co-wrote the English libretto with the Asian-American playwright David Henry Hwang...
with music (and part of the libretto) by the Korean composer Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin , is a South Korean composer of classical music, based in Berlin, Germany. She was awarded the Grawemeyer Award in 2004 and the Arnold Schönberg Prize in 2005.- Biography :...
, which received its world premiere at the Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
in 2007 and was released on DVD in 2008. Hwang wrote the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
to Howard Shore
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
's opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
The Fly
The Fly (opera)
The Fly is an opera in two acts by Canadian composer Howard Shore to a libretto by David Henry Hwang. It was commissioned by the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where it premiered on 2 July 2008, and by Edgar Baitzel, then director of the Los Angeles Opera, where the opera was first performed on 7...
, based on David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
's 1986 film of the same name
The Fly (1986 film)
The Fly is a 1986 science fiction horror film co-written and directed by David Cronenberg. Produced by 20th Century Fox, and Brooksfilms, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. It is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, but retains only the basic premise of a scientist...
; the opera premiered on July 2, 2008 at the Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet
The Théâtre du Châtelet is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.One of two theatres built on the site of a châtelet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and...
in Paris, France with Cronenberg as director and Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
conducting. Hwang was most recently represented on Broadway as the librettist for Tarzan
Tarzan (musical)
Tarzan: The Musical is based on the Disney film of the same name and the story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Music and lyrics are written by Phil Collins, with a book by David Henry Hwang.-Production:...
, a musical based on a film by Walt Disney Pictures.
Hwang also collaborated on the multi-media event Icarus at the Edge of Time, adapted from Brian Greene
Brian Greene
Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. He has been a professor at Columbia University since 1996. Greene has worked on mirror symmetry, relating two different Calabi-Yau manifolds...
's novel
Icarus at the Edge of Time
Icarus at the Edge of Time is a 2008 novel by physicist Brian Greene, illustrated by Chip Kidd with images from the Hubble Space Telescope. It was adapted into a 40-minute orchestral piece by Philip Glass with a film by AL and AL in 2010....
. It also featured music by Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
and a film by "Al and Al." The piece premiered as part of the World Science Festival
World Science Festival
The World Science Festival is a science festival held in New York City that is held annually in the summer. The 2008 inaugural festival was held May 28 – June 1 and consisted mainly of panel discussions and on-stage conversations, accompanied by multimedia presentations.The festival was the...
. His most recent short play, A Very DNA Reunion
A Very DNA Reunion
A Very DNA Reunion is a 2010 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It deals with the imprecise science of DNA technology. The play premiered as part of the production The DNA Trail: A Genealogy of Short Plays About Ancestry, Identity, and Confusions, a night of short plays...
was written for the evening of plays The DNA Trail, which was conceived by Jamil Khoury and premiered at the historic Chicago Temple Building
Chicago Temple Building
The Chicago Temple Building is a 173 meter tall skyscraper church located at 77 W. Washington St. in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the congregation of the First United Methodist Church of Chicago. It was completed in 1924 and has 23 floors dedicated to religious and office use...
.
After its major success in Chicago's Goodman Theatre, Chinglish, written by David Henry Hwang, quickly made its way to Broadway in October 2011. Chinglish was largely inspired by his frequent visits to China and his observations of interactions between Chinese and American people.
Upcoming
Hwang is also at work on three new musicals —Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, with music and lyrics by David Yazbeck, Pretty Dead Girl with music and lyrics by Anne-Marie Milazzo, and Where or When, a dance musical by Christopher GattelliChristopher Gattelli
Christopher Gattelli is a choreographer, performer, and director for the theatre. He has been nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography for South Pacific and the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Choreography for Altar Boyz. He won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreograper for...
and others— as well two plays—an original, Chinglish (due to open on Broadway October 27, 2011, following a successful run in Chicago), and a play on the memoirs of Chinese-British actress Tsai Chin
Tsai Chin (actress)
Tsai Chin , also known as Irene Chow, is a Chinese-born actress living in England.-Early life, family & education:Chin was born to Peking Opera actor Zhou Xinfang in 1936. She spent her early life in Shanghai. She had two short marriages which both ended in divorce. Her brother is Michael...
entitled Daughter of Shanghai. In an interview at the 2010 San Diego Asian Film Festival, Hwang mentioned that he was interested in creating an Asian American television series.
Works
Hwang's work for the stage includes FOBFOB (play)
FOB is a 1980 Obie Award-winning play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's first play, it depicts the contrasts and conflicts between established Asian Americans and "fresh off the boat" newcomer immigrants...
, The Dance and the Railroad
The Dance and the Railroad
The Dance and the Railroad is a 1981 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's second play, it depicts a strike in a coolie railroad labor camp in the mid-nineteenth century. The play premiered as part of a commission by the New Federal Theatre in 1981. It had its professional debut on...
, Family Devotions
Family Devotions
Family Devotions is a 1981 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's third play, it depicts the clash of West and East within three generations of an Americanized Chinese family living in a Los Angeles suburb. The play premiered on October 18, 1981 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp...
, The House of Sleeping Beauties
The House of Sleeping Beauties
The House of Sleeping Beauties is a 1983 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's fourth play, it is an adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata's novella House of the Sleeping Beauties. The play depicts Kawabata and how he might have come to have written the novella...
(adapted from Yasunari Kawabata
Yasunari Kawabata
was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...
's novella House of the Sleeping Beauties
The House of the Sleeping Beauties
House of the Sleeping Beauties is a novella by Nobel Prize winning author Yasunari Kawabata.A story about a lonely man, Old Eguchi continuously visits the House of the Sleeping Beauties in hopes of something more....
), The Sound of a Voice
The Sound of a Voice
The Sound of a Voice is a 1983 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's fifth play, it is an original ghost story inspired by Japanese folk stories, films, and Noh theater. The play was first produced as part of the production Sound and Beauty on November 6, 1983 Off-Broadway at the...
, As the Crow Flies
As the Crow Flies (play)
As the Crow Flies is a 1986 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. The play depicts an African-American maid living in a Chinese home in Los Angeles and her double life. The play premiered at the Los Angeles Theatre Center on February 16, 1986 on a double bill with Hwang's The Sound of a...
, Rich Relations
Rich Relations
Rich Relations is a 1986 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's first play with all non-Asian characters, it depicts the rich WASP Orr family and the damage within from parent to child, with many religious overtones. The play premiered at the McGinn-Cazale Theatre on April 21, 1986...
, M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer....
, Bondage
Bondage (play)
Bondage is a 1992 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It deals with issues of race and racial stereotypes by placing a fully disguised man and woman in an S and M parlor playing out sexual games. The play premiered as part of the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival on March 1,...
, Face Value
Face Value (play)
Face Value was a 1993 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It was to be the second Broadway production of the playwright's work, but it closed in previews on March 14, 1993. The production was scheduled to open at the Cort Theatre. It was directed by Jerry Zaks, with B. D...
, Trying to Find Chinatown
Trying to Find Chinatown
Trying to Find Chinatown is a 1996 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It deals with issues of racial identity by pitting an Asian street musician against a Caucasian man who claims Asian American heritage....
, Bang Kok
Bang Kok
Bang Kok is a 1996 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. The ten minute piece was commissioned as part of Sean San Jose's Pieces of the Quilt, an evening of plays related to AIDS and people suffering with the disease...
, Golden Child
Golden Child (play)
Golden Child is an Obie Award-winning play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's second Broadway play, it depicts a nineteenth century Chinese family being faced with Westernization. The play was developed Off-Broadway and premiered there on November 19, 1996 at the Joseph Papp Public...
, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt (1998 Adaptation)
Peer Gynt is a 1998 theatrical adaptation of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's classic play Peer Gynt by American playwright David Henry Hwang and Swiss director Stephan Muller. Combining many contemporary references with a streamlined turn of the original story, it was commissioned by the...
(co-written with Stephan Muller), the Humana Festival T(ext) Shirt play Merchandising
Merchandising (play)
Merchandising is a 1999 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. The play was written as a special commission from the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival...
, Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet
Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet
Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet is a 2001 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It deals with a Caucasian woman passing herself off as a minority for a book sell to a major publishing company. The play premiered as part of the production The Square, a night of short plays dealing with Asian...
, the children's play Tibet Through the Red Box
Tibet Through the Red Box (play)
Tibet Through the Red Box is a 2004 theatrical adaptation of author Peter Sis' children's book by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It tells of a boy growing up in Prague into the 1950s. It was commissioned by the Seattle Children's Theatre, where it opened on January 30, 2004. It was directed...
(based upon Peter Sis
Peter Sis
Peter Sís is an award-winning children's book writer and illustrator. Sís attended the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London...
' book), The Great Helmsman
The Great Helmsman (play)
The Great Helmsman is a 2007 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It deals with two women who are debating who will be chosen for a night with Chairman Mao Zedong. The play premiered as part of the production Ten, a night of short plays. It premiered April 30, 2007 at the Joseph Papp...
, Yellow Face
Yellow Face
Yellow Face is a play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist. It premiered in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum in association with East West Players and had its Off-Broadway premiere at the Joseph Papp Public Theater...
, and A Very DNA Reunion
A Very DNA Reunion
A Very DNA Reunion is a 2010 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It deals with the imprecise science of DNA technology. The play premiered as part of the production The DNA Trail: A Genealogy of Short Plays About Ancestry, Identity, and Confusions, a night of short plays...
.
His music-theatre work includes the texts for Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
' 1000 Airplanes on the Roof
1000 Airplanes on the Roof
1000 Airplanes on the Roof is a melodrama in one act by Philip Glass which featured text by David Henry Hwang and projections by Jerome Sirlin. It is described by Glass as "a science fiction music drama"....
, The Voyage
The Voyage
The Voyage is an opera in three acts by the American composer Philip Glass . The libretto was written by David Henry Hwang....
, and The Sound of a Voice
The Sound of a Voice (opera)
The Sound of a Voice is a 2003 operatic adaptation of the play The Sound of a Voice by American playwright David Henry Hwang. The music is written by composer Philip Glass and the libretto is written by Hwang. The opera is actually made up of two short operas-- The Sound of a Voice and Hotel of...
, the book for Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
's Aida
Aida (musical)
Aida is a musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang, and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical....
(co-written by Linda Woolverton
Linda Woolverton
Linda Woolverton is an American writer who wrote the screenplay for Disney's animated feature film Beauty and the Beast and co-wrote the screenplay for the The Lion King. Woolverton then went on to write the Broadway musical version of Beauty and the Beast and assisted in adapting The Lion King to...
and Robert Falls), the Walt Disney Company's theatrical version of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
' Tarzan
Tarzan (musical)
Tarzan: The Musical is based on the Disney film of the same name and the story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Music and lyrics are written by Phil Collins, with a book by David Henry Hwang.-Production:...
(with music and lyrics by Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
), the libretti for Bright Sheng
Bright Sheng
Bright Sheng is a Chinese-American composer, conductor, and pianist. He has lived in the United States since 1982 and is on faculty at the University of Michigan. In 1999, the White House commissioned Sheng to compose a piece to honor the Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji at a state dinner hosted by...
's The Silver River
The Silver River
See also: The Princess and the CowherdThe Silver River is a chamber opera in one act, composed by Bright Sheng, with libretto by playwright David Henry Hwang. It was first performed at the Santa Fe, New Mexico Chamber Music Festival in 1997...
, Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
's Ainadamar
Ainadamar
Ainadamar means "Fountain of Tears" in Arabic, and is the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. The libretto is by American playwright David Henry Hwang. It premiered in Tanglewood on August 10, 2003. After major revisions, the new version premiered at the Santa Fe Opera on July 30,...
, Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin , is a South Korean composer of classical music, based in Berlin, Germany. She was awarded the Grawemeyer Award in 2004 and the Arnold Schönberg Prize in 2005.- Biography :...
's Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (opera)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2007 operatic adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. It is the first opera of Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who co-wrote the English libretto with the Asian-American playwright David Henry Hwang...
(libretto co-written by Chin), and Howard Shore
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
's The Fly
The Fly (opera)
The Fly is an opera in two acts by Canadian composer Howard Shore to a libretto by David Henry Hwang. It was commissioned by the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, where it premiered on 2 July 2008, and by Edgar Baitzel, then director of the Los Angeles Opera, where the opera was first performed on 7...
as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song
Flower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
.
He has also written a number of screenplays, including David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
's adaptation of M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly (film)
M. Butterfly is a 1993 romantic drama film directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay was written by David Henry Hwang based on his play of the same name...
, John Madden
John Madden (director)
John Philip Madden is an English director of theatre, film, television, and radio.- Biography :Madden was educated at Clifton College. He was in the same house as friend and fellow director Roger Michell. He began his career in British independent films, and graduated from the University of...
's Golden Gate
Golden Gate (film)
Golden Gate is a 1994 film produced by American Playhouse. It is the story of a 1950s G-Man who gets involved with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Communist prosecutions, which leads him to become involved with a young Chinese-American woman , whose father he helped to put in prison. The...
, and Neil LaBute
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.-Early life:LaBute was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of French Canadian, English and Irish ancestry, and was raised in Spokane,...
's Possession (co-written with Laura Jones
Laura Jones (screenwriter)
Laura Jones in Australia is a screenwriter.Jones started her career writing teleplays for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her first feature film credit was the original screenplay for High Tide , directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Judy Davis...
and LaBute, adapted from the novel by A. S. Byatt
A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
). He also wrote the teleplays for Blind Alleys
Blind Alleys
Blind Alleys was a 1985 television special produced by Metromedia. It is the story of two people once linked by an interracial marriage setting up for their daughter's wedding...
(with Frederic Kimball) and the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
mini-series The Monkey King (more commonly known as The Lost Empire), directed by Peter MacDonald
Peter MacDonald (film director)
Peter MacDonald is a film director, cinematographer, and producer from London, England.He is most noted as the director of the films Rambo III, The NeverEnding Story III, and the television mini-series The Monkey King .He served as a co-producer of the film version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of...
. Hwang served as an assistant on the documentary Forbidden City, U. S. A. Along with Tristine Rainer, Hwang contributed story material to the television film Forbidden Nights, which was written by Rainer and based upon Judith Shapiro
Judith Shapiro
Judith R. Shapiro is a former President of Barnard College, a liberal arts college for women affiliated with Columbia University; as President of Barnard, she was also an academic dean within the university. She was also a professor of anthropology at Barnard...
's article "The Rocky Course of Love in China." He served as a script advisor for the film Picture Bride
Picture Bride (film)
Picture Bride is a 1995 feature-length independent film directed by Kayo Hatta from a screenplay she co-wrote with Mari Hatta, and co-produced by Diane Mei Lin Mark and Lisa Onodera. It follows Riyo, who arrives in Hawaii as a "picture bride" for a man she has never met before. The story is based...
. In 2003, Susan Hoffman directed a film adaptation of The Sound of a Voice entitled Sound of a Voice
Sound of a Voice
Sound of a Voice is a 2002 short film based upon the play The Sound of a Voice by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Susan Hoffman directed the film while participating in the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women 2002....
starring Lane Nishikawa
Lane Nishikawa
Lane Nishikawa is an American actor, filmmaker, playwright and performance artist. He is Sansei ; and his work often deals with Asian American history and identity issues. He is widely known for a series of one-man shows, including Life in the Fast Lane, I'm on a Mission From Buddha, Mifune and...
.
As another extension of his interests, Hwang penned the texts for three dance pieces: Ruby Shang's Yellow Punk Dolls (live) and Dances in Exile (presented on Alive from Off Center
Alive from Off Center
Alive from Off Center, renamed to Alive TV in 1992, was an American arts anthology television series aired by PBS between 1984 and 1996....
; starring B. D. Wong and directed by Howard Silver) as well as Maureen Fleming's After Eros http://searslist.com/currentbio/cover_bios/cover_bio_03_10.htm (with music by Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
). With Brian Greene
Brian Greene
Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. He has been a professor at Columbia University since 1996. Greene has worked on mirror symmetry, relating two different Calabi-Yau manifolds...
, he adapted the novel Icarus at the Edge of Time for composer Glass and filmmakers "Al and Al." He also co-wrote the Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
song "Solo" for his album Come
Come (album)
Come is the fifteenth studio album by Prince, released during his public dispute with his then-record company, Warner Bros.-Evolution of the album:...
.
In 1999, Hwang starred in a short film by Greg Pak
Greg Pak
Greg Pak is an American New York-based film director/comic book writer, known for his work on such books featuring the Hulk.-Early life:Pak is a graduate of Yale University, where he was a member of the Purple Crayon improv group, and studied history at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and film at...
called Asian Pride Porn, which combined humor and serious social commentary to parody the Asian fetish
Asian fetish
Asian fetish is a slang term which usually refers to an interest, attraction or preference for people, culture, or things of Asian origin by those of non-Asian descent...
and the prevalence of Asian fetish pornography. As himself, he has appeared in the documentary films Hollywood Chinese
Hollywood Chinese
Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Featured Films is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Academy Award-nominated director Arthur Dong....
, Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde, Literary Visions, The Chinese Americans, and Maxine Hong Kingston: Talking Stories. Hwang often contributes forewords and introductions to many books, including Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution, Asian American Drama: 9 Plays from the Multiethnic Landscape, Robot Stories and Other Screenplays by Greg Pak, a reprint of C. Y. Lee
C. Y. Lee
C. Y. Lee is a Chinese architect based in Taiwan. Born in Guangdong, China. He received his bachelor's degree from National Cheng Kung University, and his master's degree from Princeton University...
's The Flower Drum Song, and Karin Aguilar-San Juan's The State of Asian America: Activisim and Resistance in the 1990s. Fantasy author Kathryn Wesley wrote a novelization of Hwang's teleplay for The Lost Empire under the title The Monkey King.
Honors/Recognition
He has been awarded numerous grants, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the New York State Council on the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
The New York State Council on the Arts is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell , with backing from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and began its work in 1961...
, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. He has been honored with awards from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund is a New York-based national organization founded in 1974 that protects and promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. By combining litigation, advocacy, education, and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American communities across the...
, the Association for Asian Pacific American Artists, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas
Museum of Chinese in the Americas
The Museum of Chinese in America is a museum in New York City which exhibits Chinese American history. Founded in 1980 in New York City's Chinatown, the museum began as the New York Chinatown History Project by historian John Kuo Wei Tchen and community resident and activist Charles Laiand to...
, the East West Players
East West Players
East West Players is an Asian American theatre organization in Los Angeles, founded in 1965. As one of the nation's first Asian American theatre organizations, East West Players today continues to produce works and educational programs that give voice to the Asian Pacific American...
, the Organization of Chinese Americans
Organization of Chinese Americans
Founded in 1973, the Organization of Chinese Americans is a national organization dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States...
, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, the Center for Migration Studies, the Asian American Resource Workshop, the China Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 1998, the nation's oldest Asian American theatre
Asian American theatre
Asian American theater is theater written, directed or acted by Asian Americans.- Background :Asian American theater emerged in the 1960s and the 1970s with the foundation of four theatre companies: East West Players in Los Angeles, Asian American Theatre Workshop in San Francisco, Theatrical...
company, the East West Players, christened its new mainstage The David Henry Hwang Theatre. Hwang was featured in an autobiographical series by Boise State University
Boise State University
Boise State University is a public university located in Boise, Idaho. Originally founded in 1932 as a junior college by the Episcopal Church, the university became an independent institution in 1934, and has been awarding baccalaureate and master degrees since 1965...
with a summary of his early work, as part of the Western Writers Series, written by Douglas Street.
Mr. Hwang sits on the boards of the Dramatists Guild, Young Playwrights Inc., and the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. He conducts interviews on arts-related topics for the national PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
cable television show Asian America. From 1994–2001, he served by appointment of President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
on the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
David Henry Hwang holds honorary degrees from Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
and The American Conservatory Theatre. He lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with his wife, actress Kathryn Layng
Kathryn Layng
Kathryn Layng is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Nurse Curly Spaulding in the comedy-drama series Doogie Howser, M.D. The series aired from 1989 to 1993 and was her major screen role. After the series ended, Layng guest starred in the series Joe's Life, Diagnosis Murder, New...
, and their children, Noah David and Eva Veanne.
Selected Published Work
- Broken Promises, New York: Avon, 1983. (out-of-print; includes FOB, The Dance and the Railroad, Family Devotions, and The House of Sleeping Beauties)
- M. Butterfly, New York: Plume, 1988. (Acting edition published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; audio version available from L. A. Theatre Works; film version available from Warner Bros.)
- 1,000 Airplanes on the Roof, Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, 1989. (Original Music Recording available from Virgin Records)
- Between Worlds: Contemporary Asian-American Plays, New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1990. (includes Hwang's As the Crow Flies and The Sound of a Voice)
- FOB and Other Plays, New York: New American Library, 1990. (out-of-print; includes FOB, The Dance and the Railroad, The House of Sleeping Beauties, The Sound of a Voice, Rich Relations and 1,000 Airplanes on the Roof)
- Golden Child, New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1998. (Acting edition published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.)
- Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays, New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1999. (includes FOB, The Dance and the Railroad, Family Devotions, The Sound of a Voice, The House of Sleeping Beauties, Bondage, The Voyage, and Trying to Find Chinatown)
- Humana Festival 1999: The Complete Plays, New Hampshire: Smith and Kraus, 1999. (include Hwang's Merchandising)
- Rich Relations, New York: Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc. is a New York City-based publisher of new plays and musicals, founded by brothers and playwrights Doug and Jonathan Rand. Included in the exclusive Playscripts catalog are over 1,600 plays and musicals by over 800 authors....
, 2002. - Flower Drum Song, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by David Henry Hwang; based upon the libretto by Oscar Hammerstein, II and Joseph Fields and the novel The Flower Drum Song by C. Y. Lee; New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2003. (Broadway Cast Recording available from DRG)
- 2004: The Best Ten-Minute Plays for Two Actors, New Hampshire: Smith and Kraus, 2003. (includes Hwang's Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet)
- Peer Gynt (with Stephan Muller), based upon the play by Henrik Ibsen; New York: Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc. is a New York City-based publisher of new plays and musicals, founded by brothers and playwrights Doug and Jonathan Rand. Included in the exclusive Playscripts catalog are over 1,600 plays and musicals by over 800 authors....
, 2006. - Tibet Through the Red Box, based upon the book by Peter Sis; New York: Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc. is a New York City-based publisher of new plays and musicals, founded by brothers and playwrights Doug and Jonathan Rand. Included in the exclusive Playscripts catalog are over 1,600 plays and musicals by over 800 authors....
, 2006. - 2007: The Best Ten-Minute Plays for Three or More Actors, New Hampshire: Smith and Kraus, 2008. (includes Hwang's The Great Helmsman)
- Yellow Face; Theatre Communications Group, 2009. (Acting edition published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.)
External links
- David Henry Hwang at Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc. is a New York City-based publisher of new plays and musicals, founded by brothers and playwrights Doug and Jonathan Rand. Included in the exclusive Playscripts catalog are over 1,600 plays and musicals by over 800 authors....