Here's a New York Times story on playwright David Henry Hwang, whose latest play Yellow Face opens at the Public Theater on December 10: He Writes About What He Knows. The play is an interesting autobiographical mix of fact and fiction, about a playwright with the initials D.H.H. who leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon in the 1990s. Not-so-coincidentally, David Henry Hwang himself led a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian in the Broadway musical Miss Saigon in the 1990s. Funny. When D.H.H. mistakenly casts a white man as an Asian in his own play, thinking he's of mixed race, he tries to cover the fact to preserve his reputation as an Asian American role model. Yes, he fully admits the play is based on his own experiences.
I'm still waiting for the Bruce Lee musical that David Henry Hwang is reportedly working on. With music by David Bowie?! I'm so there.
Speaking of theater, here's a really cool story on artist Paul Chan, who directed the Classical Theater of Harlem's recent production of Waiting for Godot, which took place outdoors in parts of New Orleans particularly hard hit by Hurrican Katrina: A Broken City. A Tree. Evening. Sounds amazing.