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David Henry Hwang

DAVID HENRY HWANG

  (1957 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Paradigm  UK - represented by Rachel Daniels (Berlin Associates)

David Henry Hwang is a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist, best known as the author of M. Butterfly, which ran for two years on Broadway, won the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk, John Gassner, and Outer Critics Circle awards, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. the play also enjoyed a one-year run on London's West end and has been produced in over three dozen countries to date. Golden Child premiered Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, received a 1997 OBIe award for playwriting and subsequently moved to Broadway, where it received three 1998 Tony Nominations, including Best Play. His new book for Rodgers and Hammerstein'sFlower Drum Song earned him his third Tony nomination in 2003 for Best Book of a Musical. He also co-wrote the book for Disney's international musical hit aida, with music and lyrics by elton John and Tim Rice, and is currently represented on Broadway as the bookwriter of Disney's Tarzan, with songs by Phil Collins. His newest play,Yellow Face, will premiere in 2007 at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum and New York's Public Theater. Mr. Hwang's other plays include FOB (1981 OBIe award),the Dance & the Railroad (1982 Drama Desk Nomination and Pulitzer finalist; CINe Golden eagle award), Family Devotions(1982 Drama Desk Nomination), the House of Sleeping Beauties (1983), the Sound of a Voice (1983), Bondage (1992), Face Value (1993), and Trying to Find Chinatown (1996). He also adapted Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt with Swiss director Stephan Muller (1998). His plays are published by Plume, Theatre Communications Group, Dramatists Play Service, and Playscripts, Inc. Mr. Hwang penned the screenplays for M. Butterfly, a 1993 Warner Brothers release starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone, directed by David Cronenberg; Golden Gate (Samuel Goldwyn Co., 1994), starring Matt Dillon and Joan Chen, directed by John Madden;the Lost empire, a four-hour NBC television miniseries (Hallmark entertainment, 2001); and Possession (co-writer, USA Films/Warner Brothers, 2002), starring Gwyneth Paltrow, directed by Neil LaBute. as a librettist, he has written three works for composer Philip Glass: 1000 airplanes on the Roof (1988), the Voyage, which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1992, and the Sound of a Voice for the American Repertory Theatre (2003). the Silver River, with music by Bright Sheng, was produced at the 1998 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, 2000 Spoleto Festival USA and the 2002 Lincoln Center Festival. ainAdamar, with music by Osvaldo Golijov, was produced by the Santa Fe Opera in 2005 and Lincoln Center in 2006, in a production directed by Peter Sellars, starring Dawn Upshaw; the CD has recently been released by Deutsche Grammophon. Mr. Hwang also co-wrote the song "Solo," released on the 1994 gold album Come by composer/performer Prince. He made his acting debut in the 2001 digital short "Asian Pride Porn," directed by Greg Pak. David Henry Hwang has been awarded numerous grants, including fellowships from the National endowment for the Arts, 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 & education Fund (1989), the association for Asian Pacific American artists (1989 & 1991), the Museum of Chinese in the Americas (1995), east West Players (1997), the Organization of Chinese Americans (1997), the Media action Network for Asian Americans (1998), the Center for Migration Studies (1998), the Asian American Resource Workshop (2000), China Institute (2001), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2001), Urban Stages (2002), Asian Professional extension (2002), Second Generation Productions (2002), the Asian American Federation of New York (2003), the California State Legislature (2003), the City of Houston (2003), the Asian American Theatre Company (2004). the Asia Society Washington Center (2005), and the Cherry Lane Theatre (2006). In 1998, the nation's oldest Asian American Theatre company, east West Players, christened its new mainstage the David Henry Hwang Theatre. 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 showAsian America. From 1994-2001, he served by appointment of President Clinton on the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. 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.

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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below is a list of David Henry Hwang's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         1000 Airplanes On the Roof         Aida         American Soldier, An         As the Crow Flies         B Madonna         Bondage         Broken Promises         Chinglish         Dance And the Railroad, The         Face Value         Family Devotions         Flower Drum Song         Fob         Golden Child         Great Helmsman, The         House Of Sleeping Beauties, The         Icarus At the Edge Of Time         In Your Arms         Kung Fu         Love That Waits         M Butterfly         Merchandising         Peer Gynt         Rich Relations         Silver River, The         Sound And Beauty         Sound Of A Voice, The         Square, The         T(ext) Shirt Project, The         Tarzan         Tibet Through the Red Box         Trying To Find Chinatown         Voyage, The         Yellow Face
1000 Airplanes On the Roof

1000 Airplanes On the Roof
M has been abducted by aliens they tell him not to say anything as no one will believe him

Notes:
music by Philip Glass

1st Produced:
Vienna     1988

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Gibbs Smith, Layton, Utah, 1989
Peregrine Smith Books   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Opera

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Aida

Aida
-

Notes:
Music by elton John; Lyrics by Tim Rice; Book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls And David Henry Hwang; Based on the opera by Giuseppe Verdi

1st Produced:
Palace Theatre, New York     23 Mar 2000

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: Buena Vista (60671-7) 2000

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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American Soldier, An

Synopsis:
An American Soldier is based on the true story of Pvt. Danny Chen, a Chinese American soldier in Afghanistan. On October 3, 2011, Chinese-American Army Pvt. Danny Chen was found dead in a guard tower at his base in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. The real circumstances behind his death, though, illustrate a darker undercurrent to life in the military. Based on a true story, and drawing from the ensuing courts-martial of Chen's fellow soldiers, An American Soldier explores what happens when the very people who are supposed to protect you in a combat zone become your enemy.

Notes:
Music by Huang Ruo . Libretto by David Henry Hwang

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
opera

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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As the Crow Flies

As the Crow Flies
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los Angeles Theatre Centre     1986

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Between Worlds", Theatre Communications Group, New York, 1990   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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B Madonna

Synopsis:
Internationally acclaimed performer, Maureen Fleming brings her contemporary unveiling of the myth of Persephone to the stage of the Ellen Stewart theatre. With text by David Henry Hwang and music by Philip Glass (performed live by pianist Bruce Brubaker), original accordion music by Guy Klucevsek, and Taiko drumming by Kaoru Watanabe, this beautiful, multimedia meditation on 'miracles' juxtaposes Fleming's new and repertory works with three-dimensional video projections designed by longtime collaborator Christopher Odo.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ellen StewArt Theater, La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003     17 Oct 2013

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bondage

Synopsis:
In a Los Angeles S&M parlor, a dominatrix and her client are clad head-to-toe in leather costumes that conceal their faces and ethnicity's. these elaborate disguises allow them to play out fantasies based on racial stereotypes and sexual mythologies: she pretends to be an African-American woman to his white, liberal man; he transforms into an Asian-American and she into a blond WaSP, etc. exchanging biting social observations with stinging humor, they progress through their power games to expose the arbitrariness of racially minded thinking. all the while, however, they are haunted by an awareness that in spite of their efforts, they may be moving towards the most terrifying reality of all - a true intimacy which transcends the bounds of race.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. in Trying to Find Chinatown and Bondage; by Applause in Best Short Plays of 1993; and by Smith & Kraus in 20/20: Twenty One-act Plays from the Twenty Year History of the Humana Festival of New American Plays.,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Broken Promises

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Soho Poly, London     1987

Organisations:
Easter Actors Studio

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Chinglish

Synopsis:
Chinglish is about an American businessman who arrives in a bustling Chinese province looking to score a lucrative contract for his family's sign-making firm. He soon finds that the complexities of such a venture far outstrip the expected differences in language, customs and manners - and calls into questions even the most basic assumptions of human conduct.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Goodman Theatre, Chicago     18 Jul 2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dance And the Railroad, The

Dance And the Railroad, The
While his fellow workers are striking for higher pay, Lone, once an actor in China, exercises and practices alone on a mountaintop the ritual gestures used in Chinese opera. Ma, a slightly younger man, who wishes to become an actor, approaches him. Lone spurns him and insults the naive young man, but Ma returns day after day, eventually convincing Lone to train him as an actor. as Lone trains Ma in the ways of the Chinese opera, he also heaps a good deal of abuse on him, trying to rid him of some of his gullibility and to dissuade him from pursuing acting if he does not truly have the drive to suffer through all the work necessary to become a master of the art. Ma, however, is quite determined in his desire to become an actor and finally wins over Lone, just as the Chinese workers win their strike.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Federal Theatre, NY, Usa     1981

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Broken Promises: Four Plays", avon, New York, 1983   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Face Value

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Pre-Broaway     1993

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Family Devotions

Family Devotions
ama and Popo, two elderly and devoutly Christian Chinese sisters, escaped with their family from China just before the Communist revolution. their younger brother, Di-Gou, however, believed in the revolution, and returned to China. the two curmudgeonly sisters now live in Bel air, California, with their daughters, Joanne and Hannah, and their daughters' prosperous husbands, Wilbur and Robert. the married couples have completely embraced some of the worst aspects of being American, waste and total self-involvement. their children, however, Jenny and Chester, are not this way and are preparing their own escapes by one going to college and the other taking a job with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. the whole family eagerly awaits a visit from Di-Gou, who the sisters have not seen in over thirty years. When he arrives it is clear he is not the man his sisters remember: a religious young man who went out on a tour of China with a Christian evAngelist, and who had converted the family. Now Di-Gou does not believe in God, and when his sisters go so far as to tie him up and beat him to try and remove the "demon spirit" from his body, he reveals that the evAngelist they have revered for so long was a fake with an illegitimate child. they refuse to believe this, but Di-Gou pursues the matter and even asks them to return to China and Chinese ways. But this request, along with the shock of the religious revelation, kills the elderly women. as their daughters react in horror, Di-Gou slips away and Jenny and Chester also begin to make their exits.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York Shakespeare Festival, NYC     1981

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Broken Promises: Four Plays", avon, New York, 1983   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Flower Drum Song

Flower Drum Song
Modernised in parts to take into account some of the outdated attitudes to race BUT introducing a new character - limp-wristed, mincing Harvard.

Notes:
Music by: Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by: Oscar Hammerstein; revised version Broadway 2002

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Theatre Communications Group    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fob

Fob
F.O.B. is told in a style that moves quickly between myth and reality, with the characters occasionally speaking directly to the audience. Grace and Dale are cousins, living in the Los Angeles area and attending college. Dale is fully American, second generation. Grace is first generation and holds the customs of China in higher regard. the arrival of Steve, an exchange student and a newcomer from China, fresh off the boat, forces them to confront a number of conflicting feelings about America, China and themselves. Dale is very confrontational with Steve, mocking his english and manner. and in turn Steve is defiant and even provocative. Grace tries to keep the conflict from escalating but finds herself increasingly drawn to Steve. Grace decides to go with Steve to a school dance and an uneasy truce, of sorts, is reached between Dale and Steve.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Stanford, California     1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Broken Promises: Four Plays", avon, New York, 1983   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Golden Child

Synopsis:
In the winter of 1918, progressive Chinese landowner eng Tieng-Bin's interest in Westernization and Christianity sets off a power struggle among his three wives, which will determine the future of his daughter, ahn, Tieng-Bin's favorite, his "golden child."

Notes:
Winner of An Obie Award And nominated for A Tony.
- http://www.aatrevue.com

1st Produced:
Broadway     1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1998   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  3 men or women (flexible casting): 9 total

Further Reference:
-

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Great Helmsman, The

Great Helmsman, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "the Best Ten Minute Plays For Three Or More Actors" published by Smith and Kraus 2008   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Ten minute play

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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House Of Sleeping Beauties, The

Synopsis:
a well known novelist, Kawabata, visits a brothel in order to learn why older men frequent it. However this establishment is quite different from what he expected. Here the men simply sleep in the same bed with the beautiful young women provided, and the women never awaken or see them. the madam who runs the home carefully screens all of her potential guests and only accepts men who she deems worthy. Kawabata intends to write about the house, but slowly falls under its spell and finds himself unable to write the piece. He is troubled by thoughts of his own mortality and the suicide of his friend, the author Mishima. But the madam soothes him and with the aid of a mild sleeping potion, Kawabata finally sleeps. In the end he is able to write the story and has achieved an inner peace. With his new-found tranquillity, he asks the madam to make him some tea, but instead of the sleeping powder, he wants her to add a poison to it. Both the novelist and the madam drink the tea and slowly drift off to sleep.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Icarus At the Edge Of Time

Synopsis:
Icarus at the edge of Time is a futuristic reimagining of the classic Greek myth set in outer space, based on a stunning book by the world-renowned physicist Brian Greene. Featuring a brand new score by Philip Glass, this european premiere is performed live by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Marin alsop with a cutting-edge film by al and al. Discover the boy who challenges the awesome power of a black hole and the unyielding forces of einstein's general relativity.

Notes:
Music by Philip Glass, based on the book by Brian Greene, narrative Adapted by Brian Greene And David Henry Hwang

1st Produced:

Organisations:
See Further: the Festival of Science + Arts

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Multi Medea

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In Your Arms

Synopsis:
A company that has amassed an astounding 18 Tony Awards, 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 6 Pulitzer finalist distinctions, 3 Emmys, and 2 Academy Awards joins forces at the Globe for an exuberant world premiere dance-theatre musical! Ten of America's best theatrical storytellers (the minds behind such hits as The Full Monty, Driving Miss Daisy, M. Butterfly, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) join director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, The King and I) and composer Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime) to create a ravishing evening that glides, leaps, and twirls through the giddy extremes of romantic love. This unique event ranges across eras and cultures and tells its stories through the universal language of dance, from classical ballet to swing to tap to ballroom to jazz to flamenco and more. In Your Arms is as intoxicating as a sunset cocktail and as exhilarating as a first kiss.

Notes:
Music by Stephen Flaherty; Vignettes by Douglas Carter Beane, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Carrie Fisher, David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, and Alfred UhryDirection and Choreography by Christopher Gattelli; Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; Conceived by Christopher Gattelli and Jennifer Manocherian

1st Produced:
Old Globe Theatre, CA, USA >>>     24 Sep 2015

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
dance theatre

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  12            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kung Fu

Synopsis:
A young martial artist comes to America from Hong Kong in the 1960's with dreams of becoming the biggest movie star in the world, and struggles to overcome the West's view of Asian men as less than truly masculine.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Signature Theatre, The Irene Diamond Stage, NY     01 Feb 2014

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Love That Waits

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Lennox Art Center, Stockbridge, Ma    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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M Butterfly

Synopsis:
Bored with his routine posting in Beijing, and awkward with women, Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat, is easy prey for the subtle, delicate charms of Song Liling, a Chinese opera star who personifies Gallimard's fantasy vision of submissive, exotic oriental sexuality. He begins an affair with "her" which lasts for twenty years, during which time he passes along diplomatic secrets, an act which, eventually, brings on his downfall and imprisonment. Interspersed with scenes between the two lovers are others with Gallimard's wife and colleagues, which underscore the irony of Gallimard's delusion and its curious parallel to the events of Puccini's famous opera Madame Butterfly. Combining realism and ritual with vivid theatricality, the play reaches its astonishing climax when Song Liling, before our very eyes, strips off his female attire and assumes his true masculinity-a revelation which the deluded Gallimard can neither credit nor accept and which drives him finally-and fatally-deep within the fantasy with which, over the years, he has held the truth at bay.

Notes:
Winner of the Tony Award

1st Produced:
National Theatre, Washington     1988

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
American Theatre Magazine, NY - July, 1988
Samuel French, NY   

Music:
-

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  3            Other:  3 of the 7 men are non-speaking roles

Further Reference:
Theatre Record Vol IX (1989) Page 0496 - [Theatre: Shaftesbury]
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Bibliographies/VN_drama_bib.php

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Merchandising

Synopsis:
anyone can perform this play by an award-winning playwright simply by wearing the T-shirt upon which it is written

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
T(ext) Shirt Play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Peer Gynt

Synopsis:
Henrik Ibsen's classic is revisited with the use of contemporary metaphors and language. We follow Peer Gynt through his entire life, from delinquent youth to wealthy and bitter old man, as he encounters everything from trolls to his greatest love. One constant persists: his tragic determination to remain true to himself.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Trinity Repertory Company (Providence, Ri, United States)     1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   

Music:
-

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Genre:
90-110 min Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  8            Other:  9 males, 8 females, 5 either (10-44 actors possible: 5-24 males, 5-20 females)

Further Reference:
-

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Rich Relations

Synopsis:
Keith is a prep school debate teacher on the run with Jill, his student and underage girlfriend. they arrive at the Los Angeles mansion of his Father Hinson, an amusingly hopeless technophile who left the ministry to become a wealthy real estate baron. Long ago he was raised from the dead through the love of his sister Barbara -- but now auntie Barbara is perched on the balcony, threatening suicide unless Keith marries her cable-addicted daughter (Keith's first cousin). Full of wit, magic, and ruined household appliances, Rich Relationsexplores the ties between wealth and love, modernity and eternity, sacrifice and resurrection.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Second Stage (New York, NY, United States)     1986

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   

Music:
-

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Genre:
90-110 min Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  2 males, 3 females

Further Reference:
-

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Silver River, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Spoleto Festival     2000

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Libretto

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sound And Beauty

Sound And Beauty
-

Notes:
Ominus title: includes the House of Sleeping Beauties And the Sound of A Voice

1st Produced:
New York     1983

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Broken Promises: Four Plays", avon, New York, 1983   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Two Plays

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sound Of A Voice, The

Sound Of A Voice, The
the scene is an isolated house in the woods where a beautiful young woman lives alone. When a young samurai appears she offers him food and shelter, and when he decides to stay on they eventually become lovers. But while fascinated by his benefactress, the samurai cannot shake a superstitious mistrust of her; for all her delicacy and beauty she is also able to perform wonders of cookery, horticulture and even the martial Arts (much to his wounded pride). In the end it develops that the woman is suspected of being a witch and the samurai has come to seek glory by killing her. This he ultimately cannot, or will not, do, but neither can be accept her superiority, and so he leaves-a fateful decision which, as it turns out, is made at terrible cost to both of them.

Notes:
music Philip Glass & libretto by David Henry Hwang

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Between Worlds", Theatre Communications Group, New York, 1990   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Square, The

Square, The
meditating on 120 years of relationships between non-Asian Americans and the Asian American community, set in a public square of an American city's Chinatown

Notes:
a choral piece by sixteen leading playwrights (including Maria Irene Fornes, Jessica Hagedorn, David Henry Hwang, Craig Lucas, Jose Rivera, And Mac Wellman)

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Version 3.0: Contemporary Asian American Plays, Theatre Communications Group (2 aug 2011)   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
choral piece

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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T(ext) Shirt Project, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
with plays by David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, Jane Martin, Naomi Wallace, Wendy Wasserstein, And Mac Wellman.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Humana Festival 1999: the Complete Plays, ed Michael Bigelow Dixon & amy Wegener, Smith & Kraus, 1999   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tarzan

Tarzan
Tarzan is based on the stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the 1999 film. the score is by rock singer/composer Phil Collins, who won an Oscar for one of the songs in the animated movie--all five of the songs in the film will be included, along with eight new ones.
nytheatre.com

Notes:
music And lyrics by Phil Collins; book by David Henry Hwang

1st Produced:
Richard Rodgers Theatre     24 Mar 2006

Organisations:
Disney theatrical Productions

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: Disney (61541-7)

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
150 min Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  9 actors

Further Reference:
-

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Tibet Through the Red Box

Synopsis:
Peter's father, Vladimir, has been sent to Tibet to make a documentary film just as the nation is being invaded by the Chinese. Separated from his party, Vladimir must trek alone to the capital of Lhasa while his angry and injured son struggles to bring his Father to life through his fantastical letters. Will Father and son ever be reunited? a fictional and mythical retelling of Peter Sis' boyhood experience in 1950s Prague, based on his acclaimed book.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Seattle Children's Theatre (Seattle, Wa, United States)     2004

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
75-90 min Drama for young people

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  3 males, 1 female, 3 either (7-23 actors possible: 5-13 males, 2-10 females)

Further Reference:
-

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Trying To Find Chinatown

Synopsis:
Lost on his way to Chinatown, Benjamin asks Ronnie for directions. Ronnie, playing his violin on the street for money, is offended that just because he looks like an Asian he automatically knows where Chinatown is. Caucasian looking, Benjamin was adopted by an Asian-American family at birth. He revels in his heritage and is looking for the house where his Father was born. Ronnie, on the other hand, throws himself into all things American and finds it hard to sympathize with Benjamin who, when he finds his father's house, is filled with a special elation. BONDaGe. In a Los Angeles S&M parlor, a dominatrix and her client are clad head-to-toe in leather costumes that conceal their faces and ethnicity's. these elaborate disguises allow them to play out fantasies based on racial stereotypes and sexual mythologies: she pretends to be an African-American woman to his white, liberal man; he transforms into an Asian-American and she into a blond WaSP, etc. exchanging biting social observations with stinging humor, they progress through their power games to expose the arbitrariness of racially minded thinking. all the while, however, they are haunted by an awareness that in spite of their efforts, they may be moving towards the most terrifying reality of all-a true intimacy which transcends the bounds of race.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. in Trying To Find Chinatown and Bondage and by Smith & Kraus in Humana Festival '96, the Complete Plays, 1996   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Ten Min

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Voyage, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
music by Philip Glass

1st Produced:
Metropolitan Opera, NY     1992

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Libretto

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Yellow Face

Yellow Face
the lines between truth and fiction blur with hilarious and moving results in David Henry Hwang's unreliable memoir. Asian-American playwright DHH, fresh off his Tony award win for M. Butterfly, leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the eurAsian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as "yellowface." His position soon comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor, Marcus G. Dahlman, for mixed-race, and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value. When DHH discovers the truth of Marcus' ethnicity, he tries to conceal his blunder to protect his reputation as an Asian-American role model, by passing the actor off as a "Siberian Jew." Meanwhile, DHH's father, Henry Y. Hwang, an immigrant who loves the American Dream and Frank Sinatra, finds himself ensnared in the same web of late-1990's anti-Chinese paranoia that also leads to the "Donorgate" scandal and the arrest of Los alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. as he clings to his old multicultural rhetoric, this new racist witch hunt forces DHH to confront the complex and ever-changing role that "face" plays in American life today.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
the Public Theater

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY (2009)   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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