Event | A Conversation with David Henry Hwang and Julie Taymor
This free public event will take place on Monday, October 30 at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe.
Join New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) on Monday, October 30 for a special conversation between David Henry Hwang (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ‘85) and Julie Taymor (Fellow in Performance Art/Emergent Forms ‘89). Taymor is directing the first Broadway revival of Hwang’s Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly, starring Clive Owen and in previews beginning October 10. The two arts luminaries will talk about their collaboration, careers, the state of the theater industry, and more in a conversation moderated by Susan Haskins (Fellow in Performance Art/Emergent Forms ‘90), co-host of “Theater Talk” on PBS.
M. Butterfly will feature the spectacular sets, thrilling choreography, and dazzling stagecraft. Inspired by a true scandal, this story is about an illicit affair between a French diplomat and a Chinese opera diva whose secrets lie deep beneath the surface.
Title: A Conversation with David Henry Hwang and Julie Taymor
Date and Time: Monday, October 30, 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Location: Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012
Cost: Free and open to the public; RSVP to [email protected]
About David Henry Hwang:
David Henry Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time Obie Award winner, and a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. In addition to M. Butterfly, his works include the plays Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, Kung Fu, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida (co-author) and Disney’s Tarzan. He also updated the libretto for the 2002 revival of Flower Drum Song. America’s most-produced living opera librettist, Hwang premiered his new opera, Dream of the Red Chamber (co-authored with Bright Sheng), at San Francisco Opera last fall. Hwang has been honored with the 2011 PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Master American Dramatist, the 2012 Inge Award, the 2012 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright “Mimi” Award, a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, and the 2015 IPSA Distinguished Artist Award. He currently serves as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts, Chair of the American Theatre Wing, and is a writer/producer for the Golden Globe-winning TV series, The Affair.
About Julie Taymor:
As a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Taymor has changed the face of Broadway with her innovative direction. She is the first woman to win a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for The Lion King, which is currently celebrating its 20th year on Broadway. It also garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Awards for Taymor’s direction; three Moliere Awards, including Best Musical and Best Costumes; and myriad awards for her original costume, mask, and puppet designs. Other recent works include Grounded, starring Anne Hathaway at the Public Theater, and a cinematic version of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, filmed during her critically-acclaimed, sold-out stage production that ran at Theatre for a New Audience’s new home in Brooklyn. Taymor made her Broadway debut in 1996 with Juan Darien: A Carnival Mask (Lincoln Center), nominated for five Tony Awards. Taymor has received a MacArthur “genius” Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obie Awards, and the first annual Dorothy B. Chandler Award in Theater, among many others.
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Images: David Henry Hwang, Photo Credit: Gregory Costanzo and Julie Taymor, Photo Credit: Marco Grob
