Evening Conversation with DAVID HENRY HWANG, Playwright, and KEN SMITH, Asian Performing Arts Critic, Financial Times

“The evolving relationship between America and China will certainly prove one of the major stories of the 21st century. Though each culture is intensely interested in the other, however, real knowledge remains scarce, with impressions on both sides of the Pacific marred by stereotypes and misunderstandings. The Chinese/US Exchange meets a vital need by doing what The Lark does best: bringing together artists and presenting new plays, to advance the theatre, forge new relationships, and build community around the world.” — David Henry Hwang

David Henry Hwang is the only Asian American playwright to be honoured with a Tony Award. Since 2013, he has been spearheading The Lark Play Development Center’s reciprocal Playwright Exchange & Translation Residency Program with Chinese-speaking regions, bringing artists together to share new plays, learn about different creative processes, and explore US and Chinese perspectives. The 2013 Contemporary Chinese Playwriting Series, in partnership with the Signature Theatre, exposed New York audiences to the diverse, dynamic world of distinguished contemporary Chinese playwrights Candace Chong (Hong Kong), Meng Jinghui (Beijing), Nick Yu (Shanghai) and Wei-Jan Chi (Taipei). In 2016, the program hosted playwright Stan Lai in New York City in adapting his play Like Shadows with an ensemble of American actors. In conversation with Ken Smith, Hwang will discuss his goal of sustaining a residency in alternating locations that engages US and Chinese-speaking creatives in true cross-cultural dialogue through development and presentation of Chinese plays in English. The two will also discuss Dream of the Red Chamber—with Hwang’s libretto, to premiere in September 2016 at San Francisco Opera with composer Bright Sheng, director Stan Lai, production designer Tim Yip, and conductor George Manahan—as well as Hwang’s other upcoming projects.

Playwright David Henry Hwang deconstructs cultural stereotypes and gender absurdities, turning them into critically acclaimed works of dramatic art. Born to immigrant parents from China and the Philippines, the multi-award-winning playwright and librettist often delves deep into issues related to his own Asian American identity. His first play F.O.B. (or “fresh off the boat”) was produced in his Stanford University dormitory before moving to New York’s Public Theater in 1980, where it won the Obie award for best new play of the season. His breakthrough play, M. Butterfly, a deconstruction of Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly loosely based on a true story of espionage and mistaken sexual identity between a French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer, had a two-year run on Broadway, earning the playwright a 1988 Tony Award for Best Play; it was a finalist for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His other plays include The Dance and the Railroad and Family Devotions (1981), Golden Child (1998), Yellow Face (2007), and Chinglish (2011) and he’s written the books for the Broadway musicals Aida,Tarzan, and Flower Drum Song, with songs by Elton John, Phil Collins, and Rodgers & Hammerstein, respectively. As America’s most-produced living opera librettist, he has worked with composers Philip Glass, Bright Sheng, Osvaldo Golijov, Howard Shore, Huang Ruo and Unsuk Chin, His screenplays include David Cronenberg’s film M. Butterfly (1993) and Neil LaBute’s Possession (2002). He is currently a writer/producer for the Golden Globe-winning TV series The Affair. Recent awards include the 2011 PEN/Laura Pels Award, the 2012 Inge Award, the 2012 Steinberg “Mimi” Award, a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, and the 2015 IPSA Distinguished Artist Award, as well as the 2012 Asia Society Cultural Achievement Award. He serves as head of the MFA playwriting program at Columbia University.

Journalist Ken Smith has traveled widely, covering music on five continents. The Asian performing arts critic for the Financial Times, he is a winner of the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music writing and the author of Fate! Luck! Chance!…the Making of The Bonesetter’s Daughter Opera. He was an advisor to David Henry Hwang’s bilingual Broadway comedyChinglish and the musical Kung Fu, based on the life of Bruce Lee, for New York’s Signature Theatre.