Background
Hwang, David Henry was born on August 11, 1957 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Son of Henry Yuan and Dorothy Yu (Huang) Hwang.
( David Henry Hwang is a true original. A native of Los ...)
David Henry Hwang is a true original. A native of Los Angeles, born to immigrant parents, he has one foot on each side of a cultural divide. He knows America - its vernacular, its social landscape, its theatrical traditions. He knows the same about China. In his plays, he manages to mix both of these conflicting cultures until he arrives at a style that is wholly his own. Mr. Hwang's works have the verve of well-made American comedies and yet, with little warning, they can bubble over into the mystical rituals of Oriental stagecraft. By at once bringing West and East into conflict and unity, this playwright has found the perfect means to dramatize both the pain and humor of the immigrant experience.” Frank Rich, New York Times Throughout his career, David Henry Hwang has explored the complexities of forging Eastern and Western cultures in a contemporary America. Over the past twenty years, his extraordinary body of work has been marked by a deep desire to reaffirm the common humanity in all of us. This volume collects a generous selection of Mr. Hwang’s plays, including FOB, The Dance and the Railroad, Family Devotions, The Sound of a Voice, The House of Sleeping Beauties, The Voyage, Bondage, and Trying to Find Chinatown. FOB is an OBIE Award-winning play that explores the contrasting experiences, attitudes, and conflicts of established Asian Americans and fresh-off-the-boat (FOB) Asian immigrants. One of David Henry Hwang’s earliest plays, FOB has been called a theatrically provocative combination of realism and fantasy A sensitive, insightful, and multilevel play” (Christian Science Monitor). In The Dance and the Railroad, two Chinese workers on the Transcontinental Railroad struggle through poverty and hunger to reconnect with the traditions of their homeland. An evocative portrait of the immigrant experience,” The Dance and the Railroad is set in 1867 during a strike in an Asian labor camp (New York Post). Family Devotions takes a different look at the clash between East and West through the perspective of a Chinese American family living in a Los Angeles suburb. The Chicago Tribune calls Family Devotions a funny and compassionate piece of writing.” The Sound of a Voice is the original story of a lone samurai warrior and his encounter with a rumored witch in the woods. Inspired by Japanese folk stories and Noh theatre, this play of desperation and desire is about timeless human emotion, a subject made all the more powerful by dialogue that rings with the power and rhythm of poetry” (Asian Avenue Magazine). In The House of Sleeping Beauties, an elderly man visits a unique brothel filled with sleeping virgins, where customers are only permitted to sleep in a shared bed. Based on Hwang’s exploration of how the novelist Yasunari Kawabata was affected by his own stories, this play is an earnest, considered experiment furthering an exceptional young writer's process of growth” (New York Times). Hwang’s libretto for The Voyage was written in collaboration with composer Phillip Glass for the Metropolitan Opera’s 500th year celebration of Columbus Day. Instead of focusing on Christopher Columbus, however, the three act opera is a more general exploration of time, space, and possibility. An encounter in an S&M parlor between a man and woman in full bodysuits sets the scene for Bondage, where their role play becomes an exploration of race, love and politics in the weirdest possible contortions” (Northwest Asian Weekly). Trying to Find Chinatown, an exploration of racial identity and appearance, revolves around the interaction between an Asian street musician and a Caucasian man who claims Asian American heritage.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559361727/?tag=2022091-20
(A play based on the true story of a French diplomat, Bern...)
A play based on the true story of a French diplomat, Bernard Boursicot, posted to Peking, who fell in love with a seductive opera singer, named Shi Pei Pu, apparently unaware that Pei Pu was a man.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0822207125/?tag=2022091-20
( A thesis of a play, unafraid of complexities and contr...)
A thesis of a play, unafraid of complexities and contradictions, pepped up with a light dramatic fizz. It asks whether race is skin-deep, actable or even fakeable, and it does so with huge wit and brio.” -TimeOut London A pungent play of ideas with a big heart. Yellow Face brings to the national discussion about race a sense of humor a mile wide, an even-handed treatment and a hopeful, healing vision of a world that could be” Variety It’s about our country, about public image, about face,” says David Henry Hwang about his latest work, a mock documentary that puts Hwang himself center stage. An exploration of Asian identity and the ever-changing definition of what it is to be an American, Yellow Face is by turns acidly funny, insightful and provocative” (Washington Post). The play begins with the 1990s controversy over color-blind casting for Miss Saigon before it spins into a comic fantasy, in which the character DHH pens a play in protest and then unwittingly casts a white actor as the Asian lead. Yellow Face also explores the real-life investigation of Hwang’s father, the first Asian American to own a federally chartered bank, and the espionage charges against physicist Wen Ho Lee. Adroitly combining the light touch of comedy with weighty political and emotional issues, Hwang creates a "lively and provocative cultural self-portrait that lets nobody off the hook” (The New York Times). David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly, Yellow Face (OBIE Award, 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Golden Child (1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), Family Devotions (Drama Desk nomination), and the books for musicals Aida ( co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 Broadway revival), and Tarzan, among other works. David Henry Hwang graduated from Stanford University, attended the Yale School of Drama, and holds honorary degrees from Columbia College in 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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559363401/?tag=2022091-20
( A vivid, moving play in perfect command of its eternal...)
A vivid, moving play in perfect command of its eternal theme of family and change.” Wall Street Journal Written with insight, compassion, and a sharp eye for the unintended consequences of clashing cultures, Golden Child is one of Hwang’s best works, as entertaining as it is thought-provoking.” Backstage David Henry Hwang draws on the true stories told to him by his grandmother of his great-grandfather’s break with Confucian tradition by his conversion to Christianity, and the eventual unbinding of his daughter’s feet. A skillfully-told story that engages the emotions as well as the brain,” Golden Child explores the impact of these decisions on each of his great-grandfather’s three wives, and succeeding generations (Entertainment Focus). David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly, Yellow Face (OBIE Award, 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Golden Child (1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), Family Devotions (Drama Desk nomination), and the books for musicals Aida ( co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 Broadway revival), and Tarzan, among other works. David Henry Hwang graduated from Stanford University, attended the Yale School of Drama, and holds honorary degrees from Columbia College in 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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1559361581/?tag=2022091-20
Hwang, David Henry was born on August 11, 1957 in Los Angeles, California, United States. Son of Henry Yuan and Dorothy Yu (Huang) Hwang.
Bachelor in English, Stanford University, 1979; postgraduate, Yale Drama School, 1980-1981.
(Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play, nominated for the...)
(A play based on the true story of a French diplomat, Bern...)
( A thesis of a play, unafraid of complexities and contr...)
( A vivid, moving play in perfect command of its eternal...)
( New Broadway drama by the author of the critically-accl...)
(Book by Glass, Philip, Hwang, David Henry, Sirlin, Jerome)
(Book by David Henry Hwang, Hwang, David Henry)
(Book by David Henry Hwang, Hwang, David Henry)
( David Henry Hwang is a true original. A native of Los ...)
(Will be shipped from US. Brand new copy.)
(Drama / Anthology)
(First Edition)
(1st)
Member President's Committee Arts and Humanities, since 1994. Member Dramatists Guild (board directors since 1988).
Married Kathryn A. Layng, December 17, 1993. 1 child, Noah.