Yellow Face (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

About this book

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 Charming touching and cunningly organized as well as funny with an Ibsenite reach and stature far beyond any issues of Hwangs self-image. The Village Voice Its 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 as it explores both Asian identity as well as race in America. 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 Hwangs 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 Hwangs lively and provocative cultural self-portrait lets nobody off the hook (The New York Times). David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Awardwinning M. Butterfly a finalist for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize. Other plays include Golden Child FOB The Dance and the Railroad and Family Devotions; his opera libretti include three works for composer Philip Glass. He was appointed by President Clinton to the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities.