Tony Award-winning play M. BUTTERFLY by David Henry Hwang selected for East West Players’ 38th Anniversary Season
East West Players, the nation’s premier Asian American theatre, will present the Tony Award-winning play M. BUTTERFLY by David Henry Hwang as the fourth and final production of its 38th Anniversary Season Politics of Passion, opening June 9, 2004.
“I’m excited that East West Players, a theatre that contributed greatly to my development as an artist, will be the first professional Asian American theatre organization to produce M. BUTTERFLY,” says Hwang.
The winner of three Tony Awards in 1988 including Best Play, M. BUTTERFLY is based on a true story that stunned the world. French diplomat Rene Gallimard is arrested by the French government for having an affair with Chinese Opera singer Song Liling for more than 20 years without ever knowing that his ideal woman was a spy for the Chinese government – and a man disguised as a woman.
“As a college undergraduate, M. BUTTERFLY was my first real introduction in Asian American theatre and it inspired me to explore my Asian American identity and history through playwriting. Later, as a director, M. BUTTERFLY remained on the list of plays I had wanted to direct and I quickly leapt at the opportunity when Tim Dang approached me with the idea of directing the play,” says Chay Yew.
The other three productions of the year include the Los Angeles premiere of the musical PASSION, book by James Lapine, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, as the season opener. On a remote military outpost, a handsome army captain, separated from his beautiful (but married) mistress, is forced to re-evaluate his beliefs about love when he becomes the object of the obsessive, unrelenting passions of Fosca, his Colonel’s plain, sickly cousin. PASSION opens Sept. 10, 2003 and runs through Oct. 5, 2003.
Described by The Village Voice as a play that “sets up a series of complex dilemmas in (an) engaging family drama,” MASHA NO HOME by Korean American playwright Lloyd Suh will have its West Coast premiere as the second show of East West Players’ 38th Anniversary Season. Masha and Whitman mourn the death of their mother but the love of money becomes the root of all evil as a kae (a self-help community bank for Korean immigrants) of $30,000 cash is found and becomes a hot potato – and a test of character – as it passes through the hands of everyone in the play. MASHA NO HOME opens Nov. 12, 2003 and runs through Dec. 7, 2003.
The third play of the season is the Los Angeles premiere of THE WIND CRIES MARY by Philip Kan Gotanda. Loosely based on Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, the time is 1968 in San Francisco. Vietnam War protests are sweeping college campuses across America and young Asian Americans are coming into consciousness over their ethnic identities. A dynamic political play set during the 1960s Yellow Power Movement, the author of SISTERS MATSUMOTO and YOHEN raises issues of self-determination and explores the concept “yellow is beautiful.” THE WIND CRIES MARY opens Feb. 4, 2004 and runs through Feb. 29, 2004.
“As the Asian Pacific Islander population continues to increase in the United States we have become more passionate and involved in politics, education, the media – all issues affecting our community. East West Players will be there to create engaging and empowering theatre for that growing voice,” said Tim Dang, EWP’s producing artistic director.
All performances for East West Players’ 38th Anniversary Season are held Thursday-Sunday at the David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 in the Little Tokyo District of Downtown Los Angeles. Plays and dates subject to change.
Questions? Email gwangung@u.washington.edu