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Special Relationship Productions in association with Park Theatre present David Henry Hwang's

Yellow Face

 

Written by

David Henry Hwang

Directed by

Alex Sims

Designed by

Lily Arnold

Lighting Design by

Joshua Carr

Sound Design by

Isobel Waller-Bridge

Casting by

Annie Rowe

Produced by

Lucy Fenton for Special Relationship Productions

 

David Henry Hwang was awarded the 1988 Tony©, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and John Gassner Awards for his Broadway debut, M. Butterfly, which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.  His play, Golden Child, which premiered at South Coast Repertory, received a 1998 Tony© nomination and a 1997 OBIE Award. 

His new book, for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, earned him his third Tony© nomination in 2003.  Yellow Face, won a 2008 OBIE Award for Playwriting and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent work, Chinglish, won a 2011 Chicago Jeff Award before moving to Broadway, where it received a 2012 Drama Desk Nomination. 

Other plays include FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance And The Railroad (1982 Drama Desk Nomination), Family Devotions (1982 Drama Desk Nomination), The Sound of a Voice and Bondage. 

He co-authored the book for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, which ran almost five years on Broadway, and was the bookwriter of Disney’s Tarzan, with songs by Phil Collins.

As America’s most-produced living opera librettist, he has written four works with composer Philip Glass, as well as Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards), Bright Sheng’s The Silver River (1997), and Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland (2007 “World Premiere of the Year” by Opernwelt Magazine).

Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-writer), and co-wrote the song Solo with composer/performer Prince.  He won the 2011 PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Master American Dramatist, the 2012 Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre and the 2012 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award.

A 2013 US Artists Donnelly Fellow, he is currently the Residency One Playwright at New York’s Signature Theatre, which is producing a season of his plays in 2012-13, including the premiere of his newest work, Kung Fu.

 

Alex Sims is currently Associate Director of “War Horse” at the New London Theatre and was previously with the production in Toronto.  His production of The Promise, as part of the Donmar’s final season at the Trafalgar Studios promoting the work of up-and-coming Directors, received several four star reviews from national newspapers and The Independent said: “Alex Sims … certainly seizes his chance with both hands and comes up with a cracking account of this triangular friendship between two men and a girl across two decades in Leningrad.”

He was a Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse and worked with, amongst others, Michael Grandage, Douglas Hodge and Charlotte Westenra.

He has been an assistant director at the RSC, the Young Vic and the Almeida theatres, working with Rufus Norris, Marianne Elliot and Josie Rourke, among others.

Seen as “one to watch,” Alex is building a strong reputation for getting wonderful performances from his actors.  This is particularly relevant with regard to our aims of building experience and role models for East Asian performers.  Yellow Face is a director’s dream in this respect, as many of the cast will be playing multiple roles across gender and race.  As this will be his third solo directorial effort, Yellow Face will provide an ideal outlet to express his vision through a challenging piece with high industry visibility.

 

Lily Arnold trained at Wimbledon College of Art graduating with first class honors in 2007.  Theatre and opera productions include: Gruesome Playground Injuries (Gate Theatre), King Lear (RSC Touring), The Rape Of Lucrece (RSC Royal Lyceum Theatre), I Cinna (the poet) (RSC Swan Theatre), The Plough and The Stars (Associate, Abbey Theatre, Dublin and touring), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge Arts Theatre), The Taming Of the Shrew (RSC Swan Theatre), Ahasverus