21

August
An Asian-American playwright and activist gets tangled in a complicated and humorous web of lies as he struggles to win back his integrity.

Yellow Face

By David Henry Hwang
Directed by Ted Hewlett
2023/24 Season Sponsors:
Paul Kastner
G. Lee & Diana Humphrey
Production Sponsors: James & Judith Barr
Celebrating 50 Years Corporate Sponsor:

Summary

Truth and fiction blur in David Henry Hwang’s satiric memoir about DHH, a playwright plunged into a whirlpool of missteps and unintentional hypocrisy after a vocal protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian hustler in the Broadway production of Miss Saigon. What he condemns as “yellowface” soon comes back to haunt him when he later misidentifies a Caucasian actor for mixed-race and casts him in his own Broadway-bound comedy. His personal integrity is compromised as he proceeds to conceal his blunder aiding the narrative of this “born-again Asian.”. Ultimately a forceful argument for representation, this provocative and comical sideways glance at race and assimilation asks “who has the ownership of a culture?”

Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States 
** Represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE
° Stage Directors and Choreographers Society