The Public Theater at Stanford Presents: Yellowface

Yellowface

David Henry Hwang is the main character in Yellow Face, a new work-in-progress in development during his Stanford residency. The play explores the nature of ethnicity in America and begins with Hwang's real-life protest over the casting of a white actor as the Asian lead in Claude-Michel Schonberg's Miss Saigon. True to history, Hwang's character writes a satire in response to the controversy, called Face Value. As the story diverges into fiction, Hwang's character discovers that the actor cast as the Asian lead in his own play is of ambiguous ethnic origins. The character then finds himself implicated in a money-laundering scandal which spins him into a cultural and political quandary.

Yellow Face
(excerpt)

David Henry Hwang
-----------------------------

DHH (David Henry Hwang)

That was the first of Marcus' emails to me. More than a few Asian Americans still wonder what happened to him. After all, in certain circles, Marcus G. Dahlman, or Marcus Gee, as he was known in the community, remains a hero to this day.

AngryAsianGuy.com:

ANGRYASIANGUY.COM

Isn't it always the case, that when a voice from our community gets too powerful, white America always finds a way to bring him down?

DHH

In mainstream culture, however, Marcus, like most Asian American celebrities, remains virtually unknown. True, a few took note of his downfall.

Senator John Kerry:

SEN. JOHN KERRY

It's hardened people's cynicism. Everyone loses for that.

DHH

But for the most part, when the truth about Marcus finally came out, the press had moved on to other stories, and the fate of a minor figure in a couple of discredited scandals no longer mattered to them. Perhaps it even embarrassed reporters that so many of their hunches turned out to be, well, wrong. But everyone makes mistakes, don't they?

(pause)

Because Marcus' world collapsed outside the glare of the mainstream media, no one bothered, or even cared, to look back on my own role in his story. Some Asian American did, but they chose to look the other way, or forgive me for my mistakes.

Playwright Frank Chin:

FRANK CHIN 1

David Henry Hwang is a white racist asshole.

DHH

Well, most of them did, anyway. After all, I was -- and to a large degree, still remain -- a respected figure in the community, the first Asian playwright to have a play produced on Broadway.

Please welcome Miss Lily Tomlin.

DJ plays Awards Ceremony entrance music.

LILY TOMLIN

And the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play goes to ... "M. Butterfly." Author: David Henry Hwang. Producers: Stuart Ostrow and David Geffen.

DJ plays "Un Bel Di" music from "Madama Butterfly."

DHH

From Warner Oland playing Charlie Chan to Louise Rainer in "The Good Earth." From Mickey Rooney playing Japanese in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to Bruce Lee being passed over in favor of David Carradine for a TV series called "Kung Fu," Asians have consistently been caricatured, demonized, denied the right to tell our own stories, even to play ourselves. Well, it's a new day in America. We're entering the 1990's, and all that stops now!

Flashbulbs pop, DHH revels in the glory. DJ cues the sound of a ringing phone. Music out.

The Director

Photo of Leigh Silverman; Photo: Joan Marcus Leigh Silverman directed both the off-Broadway world premiere of Well and its workshop at the Sundance Theatre Lab in 2003. She directed Jump/Cut by Neena Beber at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Wit on London's West End and at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles, How I Learned to Drive at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dent at The Group at Strasburg (Los Angeles), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan at Theatre J (Washington, D.C.), and Blown Sideways Through Life at the Adirondack Theatre Festival. Silverman recently acted as associate director of Broadway's Never Gonna Dance. At the Sundance Theatre Lab, Silverman directed Julia Cho's 99 Histories (2001); she also directed for Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Stage and Film, New York Theatre Workshop, New Dramatists, EST, Dixon Place, New Georges, and the Passage Theatre Company. She wrote and directed Brandon Teena, which had an extended run in New York, was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award, and has had subsequent productions in Houston, Texas and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She holds degrees in directing and playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University.